NEWARK, N.J. — Winning Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals did more than keep the New Jersey Devils alive. It gave them a sniff, a scent, a feeling. Call it momentum if you want.
For one game, Martin Brodeur and the Eastern Conference champions showed they could not only play with the Los Angeles Kings, they could beat them too.
The 3-1 victory in Los Angeles on Wednesday prevented the Kings’ coronation ceremony and forced the NHL to pack the Cup and ship it back to New Jersey for Saturday night’s Game 5.
Now comes the hard part for coach Peter DeBoer and the Devils. They have to follow it up with another win over a team that has posted a 15-3 mark in the postseason and not lost consecutive games.
If New Jersey can somehow find a way, though, the Cup will be up for grabs.
“We know every time we can win a game and chip away, the end goal gets a little closer,” DeBoer said Thursday. “I know it is a cliché, but I think if we win on Saturday night this series really takes a turn.”
Kings coach Darryl Sutter felt his team played better Wednesday than it did in winning Game 2 in New Jersey.
However, Brodeur stood tall, got help on two shots off the goalpost and rookie Adam Henrique scored a great goal late in the third period to put New Jersey ahead.
“That’s why you play the series,” Sutter said. “Unfortunately, we have some spoiled people that think that everyone wins 16 in a row or something. A little confusing to me.”
The Kings have been in this position before on this road to what could be the franchise’s first title since joining the league in 1967.
They won three straight over the top-seeded Vancouver Canucks in the opening round, lost Game 4 at home and clinched the series on the road, where the team is an NHL-record 10-0 in this postseason.
After sweeping the second-seeded St. Louis Blues in the second round, the eighth-seeded Kings followed the same formula in the Western Conference finals, taking the first three games from the third-seeded Phoenix Coyotes, losing a possible clincher at home and then nailing down their first trip to the Cup Finals since 1993 in Game 5.
It would be appropriate if they raised their first Cup on Saturday, but the Devils stand in the way.
“We know within the room we have the personnel to complete this comeback,” said Henrique, who scored series-clinching goals in overtime against the Florida Panthers in Game 7 and the New York Rangers in Game 6. “There are a lot of people out there that don’t think we can do it, but it really doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks, it matters what we think in the room.”
