No one will ever again call the New Jersey Devils a Mickey Mouse team.
Mighty Mouse, maybe.
It was Wayne Gretzky who once pinned that smirking label on the Devils, but not even the Great One in his prime could have made any difference Thursday night.
As a crowd of 19,040 screamed in delight, the Devils humiliated the once-mighty Detroit Red Wings 5-2 in Brendan Byrne Arena and moved within a victory of clinching the first Stanley Cup in franchise history. That could come as soon as Saturday night.
The Red Wings certainly are aware that only one team in history has come back from a 3-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup finals. They were the losing team when the Toronto Maple Leafs did it in 1942.
“I’ve coached a lot of teams in the finals,” said Detroit’s Scotty Bowman, who has won six Stanley Cups, “and I’ve lost some and I’ve won some but I never was as humiliated or embarrassed as I was tonight.
“It was a total shutdown. The Devils just won every aspect of the game. We didn’t compete. It’s unacceptable to play like we did tonight.”
The game was decided halfway through the second period when the Devils assumed a 4-0 lead. Bowman pulled starting goalie Mike Vernon at that point but made it clear he didn’t blame Vernon for the defeat.
“Mike Vernon, before they scored the first goal, had half a dozen saves that were tougher than any he had in the first two games,” said Bowman.
The Devils led 5-0 before Detroit scored two meaningless power-play goals in the final three minutes.
“This was our best game here in the playoffs,” said New Jersey coach Jacques Lemaire. “I don’t recall any other game close to this. I think we played close to a perfect game.”
If Detroit ever had a chance, it came on a Kris Draper shot off a rebound that Martin Brodeur stopped when the game was still scoreless.
“I just put my stick across the red line and he couldn’t put it in,” said Brodeur. “Any time you make a big save early in the game it brings the team up and that’s what we did.
“Coming into this game we were scared because of what happened to us against Philadelphia but the guys played a huge game.”
“I have to give my players credit,” said Lemaire. “They were in faces all the time. As soon as they get the puck someone’s on them.”
And Claude Lemieux, who scored his playoff-leading 13th goal in the first period, says the Devils will have to make sure they keep playing that way.
“You want to be afraid of your opponent every time you step on the ice,” he said. “We can’t forget this was the team that was the favorite to sweep or at least to win in five or six games. When you think you have it made you’re in trouble.”
But Thursday it was the Red Wings in trouble as five different players scored for the Devils, beginning with Bruce Driver’s first-period power-play goal.
The critical second goal by Lemieux came with the teams skating four aside as he beat Vernon on a shot from the top of the circle.
Neal Broten made it 3-0 seven minutes into the second period on a blast from just inside the blue line, beating Vernon low on his glove side.
Just 81 seconds later the Devils scored again, this time getting a goal from their Crash Line of Randy McKay, Bobby Holik and Mike Peluso. McKay kept the puck in the zone at the blue line and skated it behind the net before sending it out to the point.
Vernon stopped Driver’s shot from there, but the rebound kicked out to Holik, who passed to McKay in the slot. Holik’s power-play goal made it 5-0 before Sergei Fedorov and Steve Yzerman scored late face-saving goals for Detroit.
