They have not forgotten, these Devils. In the wild whirl of standing three victories from the Stanley Cup, of humbling the defending champs in the opener, of the Finals’ biggest outburst since 1996, the memory is still fresh.
They haven’t forgotten winning Game 1 against Philly, too.
That’s why they know what tonight means, Game 2 against the Stars at the Meadowlands. They remember that it required a comeback of historic proportions to survive the near-fatal nosedive that began when they blew the second game to the Flyers. They dare not tempt the fates again.
“We should have won Game 2, too,” Claude Lemieux said yesterday, with a snort of exasperation. “That was different. That was on the road.”
That difference makes victory tonight even more imperative. At least the Devils were coming home for a pair then. They head to Dallas for two games after tonight, and while the Stars are just 3-5 on the road, they stand a tall 9-1 at home. The embarrassed Texans still have tonight to redeem themselves and wrest home-ice advantage from New Jersey, and rekindle memories of near-disaster.
“We’ve learned that we don’t want to put ourselves in a position like that again,” said Petr Sykora, a four-point hero in Tuesday’s 7-3 Devil triumph.
The Stars, opening a series on the road for the first time since 1995, think they can salvage this journey, and more.
“We have to win. Then it goes back to our court, our building, and that’s a big swing,” Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We have to win [tonight] to press this on.
“When you know you have to win on the road, the pressure’s on to win a road game to save yourselves. Pretty soon, you start running out of games.”
The Devils need only play .500 hockey for the rest of the season to sip champagne, and a victory tonight would put history on their side. Every team that has gone up 2-0 in the Finals since 1971 has won the Cup, but first, they have to again stun these Stars.
“I don’t fear satisfaction, but I fear that possibly we may come out and not give the opponent the respect they deserve. That is always the case when you win a lopsided game like that,” Larry Robinson said.
Since the Finals went best-of-7 in 1939, only the 1942 Leafs and the 1966 and 1971 Canadiens have overcome 0-2 deficits. But it was these same Stars who last year became the 13th team in 61 years to win the Cup after losing the Finals opener.
“We’re still preparing for the best team in the NHL,” Bobby Holik said. “Don’t look at that score. It is deceiving.
“They are the deepest, most balanced team in the league. We cannot let up for a second.”
Hitchcock, however, seemed to be pointedly repeating that his team was smeared in the opener.
“Cripes, I hope we haven’t [come back like] this before, getting drilled like that,” Hitchcock said. “We are pretty experience at writing things off, and we are going to have to be very experienced because we got drilled pretty hard and drilled by a very, very good hockey team on top of their game.”
Hitchcock said he’d be back with Eddie [Sleepy] Belfour tonight, despite yanking him after six goals in Game 1, as Belfour blamed cold medication for his failures. Hitchcock blamed Dallas’ fatigue at having to win Game 7 from Colorado Saturday and fly to New Jersey for Tuesday’s opener, while the Devils had finished Philly Friday.
“We know how critical things are at this stage, and that energy and enthusiasm are the two biggest factors in winning championships,” Hitchcock said. “We know we’re two days behind them energywise, but it is our job somehow to catch up these two days … We have an obligation to ourselves and the organization to find that energy back again. We have got to do it. Whatever we do has to include writing off [Tuesday] and start something new, because they are ahead of us. They are ahead of us in jump. They are ahead of us in a lot of areas.”
And the Devils are ahead in the series. Their chance to take firm control is tonight.
*
Hitchcock ruled out Jamie Langenbrunner (knee) from tonight’s game, but said expects Derian Hatcher to play despite hyperextended knee suffered in Game 1 … The 10 goals in Game 1 were the most in a Finals opener since the Isles topped Vancouver in 1982, 6-5 on Mike Bossy’s winner with two seconds left in OT, courtesy Harold Snepsts … .Devils are 5-0 all-time in Finals.