Bedeviled: Devils ride home ice, end Ducks' surreal season

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The Stanley Cup feels right at home in New Jersey.

The Devils, riding the greatest home-ice advantage in NHL playoffs history and a goal from one of the unlikeliest Game 7 stars ever, ended the Mighty Ducks' surreal season and won the Stanley Cup with a 3-0 victory Monday night.

Mike Rupp, who had never appeared in a playoff game until being called on in Game 4, scored the first goal and set up Jeff Friesen for the other two. Friesen scored five goals in the series, all at home.

The Devils swept all four games at home -- all with the second period proving decisive -- in the first finals since 1965 and only the third in which the home team won every game. The Ducks rallied from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits to force a Game 7 by winning all three games in Anaheim.

Never has the home-ice edge been more important to a Stanley Cup winner. The Devils were a record 12-1 at home, allowing only 13 goals. They outscored the Ducks 15-3 in the four games in New Jersey, with each one decided by three goals.

"We feel really at ease playing in our own building. The only reason we won the Stanley Cup is because we were so dominant in our own building," said goalie Martin Brodeur, who turned aside 24 shots in his third shutout of the series, all at home.

And who says there wasn't a triple crown winner this year?

The Devils, despite lacking the huge payroll and plethora of stars that Detroit does, won their third Stanley Cup in nine seasons -- matching the Red Wings for the most since the Edmonton Oilers won their fifth Cup in 1990.

"This makes up for that bad time against the Colorado Avalanche," said Devils captain Scott Stevens. The Devils would have had a fourth Cup if they hadn't lost a 3-2 series lead and the Cup to Colorado in 2001.

Brodeur outdueled Jean-Sebastien Giguere, whose remarkable goaltending earned him the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player in the playoffs. He was only the fifth player to win the Conn Smythe on the losing team and first since Philadelphia's Ron Hextall in 1987.

A tearful Giguere never smiled as he accepted the MVP trophy to the boos of the New Jersey fans and the applause of the Devils players.

The Ducks had won only one previous playoff series in their 10- year history, upsetting the defending champion Red Wings and top- seeded Dallas Stars in consecutive rounds.

In the end, though, the jig was up for Jiggy and a straight-out- of-Hollywood season for the Ducks, who were trying to match the World Series champion Anaheim Angels by winning a totally unexpected championship seven months apart.

By preventing seventh-seeded Anaheim from becoming the lowest- seeded Stanley Cup winner ever, Rupp -- an unknown name even to most Devils fans until a few games ago -- wrote his name alongside Game 7 stars such as Henri Richard, Ray Bourque and Mark Messier.

Rupp hadn't played since early May and was skating only with the non-active players after practice before being unexpectedly pressed into the lineup by coach Pat Burns in Game 5. He played well enough to start getting regular shifts, but neither Rupp nor Burns could have expected this.

After both goalies enjoyed strong first periods, Rupp scored the pivotal first goal that has proven so important, with the Devils going 11-0 when they score first.

Only 2:22 into the second period, Scott Niedermayer's shot from the blue line was deflected by Rupp between Giguere's pads as the goalie moved to his left. Sensing how important the goal was, Giguere angrily pushed the puck out of his net.

"The second period has been our downfall here," said a dejected Adam Oates of Anaheim.

Niedermayer assisted on both goals to win his third Cup with the Devils and deny his brother, Anaheim forward Rob Niedermayer, his first. Before the series, their mother, Carol, said she hoped the Ducks would win so both sons could own the Cup.

Slightly less than 10 minutes after Rupp scored his first playoff goal in only his fourth playoff game, he gathered Niedermayer's rebound and tipped it to Friesen, who scored his fourth goal of the series but first since Game 2.

Friesen had three goals as the Devils won each of the first two games 3-0 against the Ducks, who were coming off a record 10-day layoff following their conference finals sweep of Minnesota.

Stevens, who as the captain was the first to skate with the Cup, handed it to Niedermayer, no doubt aware how difficult it was for the brothers to compete against each other for the same cherished prize.

One goal might have been enough for Brodeur on this night, two probably seemed like 20 goals to Brodeur, who has now won an Olympic gold medal and a Stanley Cup in consecutive years. Brodeur's big- game experience meant all the difference as he became one of five Devils to win three Cups with the team.

Notes: The Devils won their three Cups with different coaches: Jacques Lemaire (1995), Larry Robinson (2000) and Burns . . . The Devils are the first team to win the Cup with a losing road record (4- 8) since the 1974 Flyers . . . Home teams are 10-2 and have won the last four finals Game 7s. It was the Devils' second Game 7 in three years; they lost at Colorado 3-1 in 2001 . . . Of the 11 teams to lose in their first appearance in the finals, Anaheim was the first to take it to seven games . . . The last team to win a finals Game 7 on the road was Montreal in Chicago in 1971, also the last time a team lost the first two games on the road and won the Stanley Cup . . . Among the first to skate with the Cup was the injured Joe Nieuwendyk, who sat out the series with a torn abdominal muscle.

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