The hockey world gave the Devils their due here Saturday night when the gritty blue-collar team from New Jersey completed an astonishing four-game sweep over the Detroit Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup in what could be their final season in the city by the swamp.
The Devils may be moving to Nashville next season, but they moved heaven and earth in eight days that shook the NHL. They outplayed the heavily favored Red Wings from the first and they finished the job Saturday with a 5-2 victory against a Detroit team that fought desperately to stay alive but ran out of steam in the final 30 minutes.
Neal Broten’s second goal of the game broke a 2-2 tie at 7:56 of the second period, and the Wings managed only two shots for the rest of the game against Martin Brodeur.
The Devils broke it open in the final period on goals by rookie Sergei Brylin and Shawn Chambers, his second of the night. By then the crowd of 19,040 was standing, screaming and shouting: “We want the cup! We want the cup!”
When it was over the new champions poured onto the ice, and after Claude Lemieux was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs’ most valuable player, the league’s crown jewel was passed from Commissioner Gary Bettman to Devils captain Scott Stevens.
Stevens held the silver chalice aloft and skated a few strides before passing it on to John MacLean, Bruce Driver and Ken Daneyko, the three veterans who have spent their entire careers with the Devils.
Lemieux did not figure in the scoring Saturday night but had 13 goals during the six-week grind, including the game-winner in the first game of the finals in Detroit and the critical second goal in Game 3 here Thursday night.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Lemieux. “You look at some of the names on this trophy. Just the thought that I’m on there and on the Stanley Cup is just amazing. Who would have thought?”
It was Lemieux’s second Stanley Cup victory, the first since his rookie year with Montreal. “In Montreal,” said Lemieux, “we were part of a tradition. That was their 23rd Stanley Cup. Here with the Devils we’re building a tradition.”
It was fitting that Broten should star in the clinching game since it was his arrival from Dallas in a trade in February that started the Devils’ incredible turnaround.
“Neal Broten is one heck of a hockey player,” said Stevens. “Without Neal, I don’t think we would have been here right now.”
Broten’s first goal came just 68 seconds into the game and was hotly disputed by the Wings. “We thought he kicked it in with his skate,” complained Detroit captain Steve Yzerman.
But the Red Wings quickly tied it when Sergei Fedorov two-timed the puck past Brodeur just :55 later. Paul Coffey gave the Wings the lead at 13:01 with a shorthanded goal, but Chambers tied it before the period ended.
Broten scored the game-winner when he camped in front of the net and jabbed twice at a rebound before finally lifting it high enough to get it over a sprawled Mike Vernon.
“The puck was bouncing great for me,” said Broten. “One went off my foot and one was a sloppy goal, but it went in the net.”
After that the Devils relied on the strangling defense that held the high-powered Red Wings under 20 shots in three of the four games, including Saturday’s clincher.
“I’m not surprised about anything they did except they did it so well,” said Yzerman. “The thing I’m surprised about is getting swept and losing. I didn’t expect that.”
Few people did, including the winning Devils, most of whom admitted they would have been happy to sneak out of Detroit with one victory.
Instead, they won both games there and it snowballed on the Red Wings.
“I think the second game was the key,” said Daneyko, “when we got the tying goal by Scott Niedermayer and the late one by Jimmy Dowd. To lose two games in your own building is pretty demoralizing.”
“Once you get on a slide like we were on it’s tough to catch up,” agreed Detroit coach Scotty Bowman.
Before Game 3, Devils coach Jacques Lemaire had said he didn’t want his players to start thinking they were good.
“They aren’t good,” he said. “If they win two more games they’ll be good.”
Saturday night he could finally say it: “Now they’re good.”
