Devils go up 3-2 in finals

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Three unconventional goals in a totally out-of-character game put the New Jersey Devils in a familiar position -- up 3-2 in the Stanley Cup finals.

Brian Gionta scored a goal and set up Jay Pandolfo for the go- ahead score -- neither of which went off the Devils' sticks -- in a decisive second period as New Jersey beat the Anaheim Mighty Ducks 6- 3 in Game 5 Thursday night.

After four consecutive games of limited scoring chances, minimal open ice and excellent goaltending, all of the above vanished in a shootout that was the antithesis of the series to date.

What stayed the same was the Devils' dominance on home ice. They have outscored the Ducks 11-3 while going 3-for-3 at Continental Airlines Arena, and now they're 12-1 at home in the playoffs, matching Edmonton's 1988 record for home wins in a single playoff year.

This is the third time in four seasons that the Devils have led the finals 3-2. In 2000, they closed out the Dallas Stars on the road in Game 6, but a year later they squandered their lead by losing the final two games, and the Cup, to Colorado.

The Devils can raise the Cup by winning Game 6 Saturday night in Anaheim, where the Ducks won two closely played games in overtime to even the series.

The only players working overtime Thursday were goalies Martin Brodeur and Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who hadn't allowed more than three goals in any playoff game this spring, including seven overtime games. Yet by the early part of the third period they had given up five.

Naturally, three curious goals decided an up-and-down, free- flowing game that looked nothing like the first four games, when there wasn't a single goal scored in the first period.

This time it was 2-2 after one before the Devils retook the lead - - not by putting the puck in the net, but by letting the Ducks do it for them.

Gionta, previously without a goal in the playoffs, threw the puck toward the net from along the right-wing boards, and it deflected off Ducks forward Mike Leclerc's stick and into the net before Giguere could react at 3:12.

Samuel Pahlsson tied it just over three minutes later, but Pandolfo gave the Devils the lead for good at 4-3 midway through the period on a goal that was initially waved off by referee Bill McCreary.

Gionta was trying to get the puck down low when it deflected off Pandolfo's skate and past Giguere. McCreary quickly signaled no goal, indicating Gionta had kicked the puck in.

But replays showed there was no distinct kicking motion by Gionta - - the criteria the NHL uses to determine if a player is intentionally trying to deflect the puck -- and director of officiating Andy Van Hellemond ruled that the goal counted after watching a replay.

Jamie Langenbrunner added his 10th and 11th goals of the playoffs in the third period. Gionta assisted on the second, giving him a three-point night. Langenbrunner's first goal also took an odd bounce, going off Ducks defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh and the boards behind the net before deflecting in.

The game wasn't a minute old before it became clear it would be quite different from the others in the series. Petr Sykora, the Ducks' leading goal scorer during the season but largely ineffective in the series, scored with only 42 seconds gone.

At that point, Anaheim had more goals than it scored in 120 minutes in the first two games on New Jersey ice, which the Devils dominated with twin 3-0 victories in Games 1 and 2.

The goal was almost an instant replay of Ruslan Salei's winner in overtime of Game 3. Just as on that goal, Adam Oates cleanly won a faceoff in the offensive zone that went directly to Sykora, who one- timed it off goalie Martin Brodeur's glove.

But in a series in which the first goal had all but determined the winner, any momentum Anaheim generated off its first goal -- and its first lead -- on the Devils' ice vanished when Pascal Rheaume deflected Turner Stevenson's wraparound shot past Giguere less than three minutes later.

The Devils took a 2-1 lead on only their 12th power-play goal of the playoffs, by Patrik Elias at 7:45. It was New Jersey's first lead in the series since Brodeur lost his stick and let in Ozolinsh's goal in Game 3. But the Ducks tied it just over five minutes later as Steve Rucchin scored from the slot off successive quick passes by Sykora and Paul Kariya. After going four games without a goal from either of their two top lines, the Ducks suddenly had two in a span of just over 12 minutes.

And, just like that, a series that was becoming one of the lowest- scoring in a half-century suddenly had its highest-scoring period since the Red Wings and Flyers also combined for four goals in the first period of Game 3 in 1997.

Notes: Madden played with a large gash under his left eye that needed 20 stitches to close in the first period. . . . Teams winning Game 5 have taken 13 of the 17 finals that were tied after four games. However, the Devils blew that 3-2 series lead with successive losses to the Avalanche two years ago. . . . New Jersey scored twice on the power play after going 1-for-12 in the first four games.

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