Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 10, 2012, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B3 SPORTS NHL PLAYOFFS B3 SUNDAY, JUNE 10, 2012 STANLEY CUP FINAL Los Angeles vs. New Jersey ( Kings lead series 3- 2) Saturday Game: New Jersey 2 Los Angeles 1 Monday Game: New Jersey at Los Angeles, 7 p. m. ( CBC, NBC, RDS) x- Wednesday Game: Los Angeles at New Jersey, 7 p. m. ( CBC, NBC, RDS) SATURDAY SUMMARY Kings 1 at Devils 2 First Period 1. New Jersey, Parise 8, 12: 45 ( pp) Penalty - Mitchell LA ( interference) 11: 00. Second Period 2. Los Angeles, Williams 4 ( M. Greene) 3: 26 3. New Jersey, Salvador 4 ( Ponikarovsky, Zajac) 9: 05 Penalties - Fayne NJ ( delay of game) 9: 33, Salvador NJ ( highsticking) 18: 38. Third Period No Scoring. Penalties - Brown LA ( holding stick) 5: 51, Penner LA, Ponikarovsky NJ ( roughing) 18: 24. Shots on goal by Los Angeles 7 10 9 - 26 New Jersey 4 12 3 - 19 Goal - Los Angeles: Quick ( L, 15- 4); New Jersey: Brodeur ( W, 14- 8). Power plays ( goals- chances) - Los Angeles: 0- 2; New Jersey: 1- 2. Referees - Dan O'Halloran, Brad Watson. Linesmen - Derek Amell, Jonny Murray. Attendance - 17,625 ( 17,625). N EWARK, N. J. - The New Jersey Devils have now done something no one else has done this post- season and are inching closer to doing something no one has done since 1942. The Devils put an end to the Los Angeles Kings' perfect road record in these Stanley Cup playoffs with a 2- 1 victory in the best game to date in this best- of- seven series. They now trail 3- 2 with Game 6 set for Monday night in L. A. Brandon native Bryce Salvador scored the winner midway through the second period as he directed a wrist shot at the Kings net which caromed off L. A. blue- liner Slava Voynov and behind goalie Jonathan Quick. " I faked a shot to try and buy myself a little time and then went cross- grain and fired it at the net," said Salvador, who missed all of last season with a concussion and then went without a goal in this year's regular season. He has now notched four in the playoffs. " It must have hit 16 people on the way but it went in," he said. Salvador has just 23 career regular- season goals through 692 games, but the 36- year- old is enjoying his new- found sniper status. " I went 82 games without a goal, so I'm taking any goal I can get and anyway I can get them," said Salvador, who grew up in Brandon and played his junior hockey with the Lethbridge Hurricanes. " It's fun to score, but the important thing is the team having success." The Kings opened this series with three straight wins and have now failed to secure the Cup in two straight elimination games. The only team to ever rebound from a 3- 0 deficit in the Stanley Cup final is the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs. Los Angeles had won 10 straight road games and were also a perfect 2- 0 in Game 5s. All those numbers can now be thrown out the window. History has nothing to do with what will happen next. " We're in this thing now," said Devils winger Zach Parise, who scored his first goal of the series. " We've made it a series and we'll see what happens." Devils coach Pete DeBoer said blue- liner Salvador, normally a difficult guy to play against, with more grit than finesse, has found some scoring punch at just the right time. " That's something that he's really kind of mastered here over the last month of the playoffs. He's had great composure back there for us, getting shots through. We wouldn't be here without him," said DeBoer. The Kings had lots of zip early and climbed all over the Devils but came up empty as 40- year- old goalie Martin Brodeur looked once again like the happy cherub who collected three Stanley Cups back in the day. " I mean, what else can you say? Marty's performance speaks for itself. It's the timing of it. You know, I think the fact we're 9- 1 or 10- 1 in Games 4 through 7 in a series is a testament to how he enjoys that type of pressure," said DeBoer. Quick looked like a lock to win the Conn Smythe Trophy after the first three games of the series but Brodeur has now outplayed him in back- toback games. The Devils scored first as Quick wandered out of his net to play the puck and flipped it behind his net to a waiting Parise, who then stepped to the crease and stuffed home a goal. The Kings evened the score early in the second period as Justin Williams cut to the middle of the ice and used linemate Dustin Brown's screen to beat Brodeur with a wrist shot. The team that has scored first in this series has now won every game. " We needed the first goal. Regardless of how it looked, we needed the first goal," said DeBoer. " I thought they controlled the first period. They were the better team in the first period, which was a little surprising. I don't know whether it was nerves for us or what. But they controlled the period. Marty made some big saves for us. We capitalized on a mistake. But it's nice that we're finding some holes in them right now." Kings coach Darryl Sutter has said throughout the series the difference in each game has been minimal, and with every mistake comes a big price. " We're probably saying what they said after Games 1 and 2, where we got breaks and now they did. " That's how even it is. We hit a couple posts again tonight, and you hope one goes off the post and in," said Sutter. " I think if there's anything, you got to finish your opportunities. You got to work to get ' em, you pretty much have to not give up more than one." Game 6 is scheduled for L. A.' s Staples Center ( 7 p. m., CBC). gary. lawless@ freepress. mb. ca Twitter: @ garylawless BRUCE BENNETT / REUTERS Crashing the net: Devils left- winger Zach Parise ( left) falls behind Kings goalie Jonathan Quick ( 32) in the first period of Saturday's Game 5 in Newark. Them Devils are doin' it Brand- new series after Jersey snaps Kings' road streak, takes it to Game 6 GARY LAWLESS gary. lawless@ freepress. mb. ca NEWARK, N. J. - Both coaches showed guts in changing their lineups in the middle of the Stanley Cup final to insert previously injured key members of their clubs that hadn't seen game action in months. Los Angeles' Darryl Sutter and New Jersey counterpart Peter DeBoer have both been rewarded for their bravery. Devils defenceman Henrik Tallinder made his debut in these playoffs on Wednesday night in Game 4, replacing Peter Harrold after being out since Jan. 17 because of a blood clot. Tallinder jumped right back into the flow, logging nearly 20 minutes of ice time and being used on the power play and to kill penalties. DeBoer also swapped in veteran forward Petr Sykora in place of Jacob Josefson after not using the healthy Syko- ra since earlier in the post- season. Whether it was a coincidence or not, the Devils stayed alive in the finals by winning 3- 1 and cutting the Kings' series lead to 3- 1. " It's a lot of words: excitement, nervous, happy," Tallinder said of his Stanley Cup finals appearance. " I mean there were so many emotions out there. I just enjoyed it. It was so much fun. It's another level, even from the conference finals to go to the finals." He almost didn't get the chance. DeBoer originally told Tallinder that he wouldn't be in the Game 4 lineup, but then changed his mind. " I knew he was ready to go. He had made that clear," DeBoer said Friday. " I'd explained to him I felt that Peter Harrold and ( Anton) Volchenkov had done a real good job for us. It was going to be tough to take those guys out of the lineup. " Really where I had a change of heart was just in his reaction. It wasn't negative. He was just adamant that he was ready, really thought he could help. When a player puts his neck on the line like that, I get a real comfort level knowing he was a veteran guy and knowing how good he was at the top of his game for us as a top- two guy, that he could help us. " A little bit of a risk, but he basically talked me into that. Thought he was outstanding. Big boost for us." The same thing on the other side when Sutter put forward Simon Gagne into the lineup for Game 3 after Gagne was out since Dec. 26 because of a concussion. Los Angeles grabbed a 3- 0 series lead with a 4- 0 win. - The Associated Press Neither coach afraid to change lineups in mid- series By Ira Podell B_ 03_ Jun- 10- 12_ FP_ 01. indd B3 6/ 10/ 12 12: 00: 30 AM ;