Don’t count Martin Brodeur and his New Jersey Devils out just yet! Saturday afternoon Brodeur and the Devils rocked the Carolina Hurricanes with a 5-1 pounding, a much relished event for the fans at the Meadowlands. It was the kind of game many had anticipated from the New Jersey boys, but not with a do or die staring them in the face. It took the Devils four games to finally play the fast paced and punishing type of style that has kept them in the hunt for the Stanley Cup the last number of seasons.
New Jersey played Carolina hard, taking possession frequently turning turnovers into goal scoring opportunities and then capitalizing with goals when the time came. More importantly the Devils finally got into the head of Canes goaltender Cam Ward, chasing him from the game in the second period, bringing his seven game winning streak to a screeching halt.
Scott Gomez carried much of the freight on Saturday afternoon as he paced the Devils with two key goals on the power play in the first period. The Devils controlled most of the play and the net result was that by the one minute mark of the second period they already had a 4-1 lead, good enough to secure a much needed win and send the series back to Carolina for game five Sunday night.
For Carolina it was just one of those games where nothing seemed to neither go right nor offer them up much in the way of luck. All they can do is regroup for Sunday and try to snuff out the Devils rebirth as quickly as possible. Allowing the Devils to feed off of their momentum from Saturday should be the key to the Carolina attack in game five, slow them down, take the play into their end of the rink and then get back on track with their shots on Brodeur.
Letting the Devils gain a victory in game five would not be a beneficial move, when you have the Devil on the run, you have to run him right out of town. For the Hurricanes they need to point to the Raleigh city limits and show the Devils the way back home for the summer!
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