Devils 3, Ducks 1
The players can change, but a Jacques Lemaire-coached team will always look basically the same.
Trapped into submission everywhere outside Martin Brodeur's breathing radius, the Ducks fell 3-1 to the New Jersey Devils.
The lone goal came from Corey Perry, who was standing in the crease behind Brodeur when the goalie lost the puck between his legs, and easily tapped in his 12th goal of the season at 2:25 of the second period. That goal tied the game at 1, but the Devils scored twice more in the period on a pair of breakaways, by David Clarkson and Zach Parise, the latter coming short-handed with 13 seconds left in the period.
Jonas Hiller stopped 22 of 25 for the Ducks, who were missing center Saku Koivu. Koivu was a last-minute scratch with a lower-body injury, and Erik Christensen took second-line center duties.
Brodeur stopped 31 of 32 and got plenty of help from a defense that held the Ducks to just eight shots and no goals on six power-play shifts.
About J.P.
J.P. Hoornstra has been covering the Anaheim Ducks since 2007. Eight months after the University of Wisconsin won its third NCAA hockey championship, he was born in a frigid Madison winter. He betrayed his blue-blooded beginnings by graduating from UCLA in 2003, and welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
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