SUMMARY / P. 71
Devils 2
Penguins 1
PITTSBURGH – The most diminutive Devil gave his team a leg up . . . then he gave them another. Suddenly, the stumbling Stanley Cup champs are back on their feet – if not quite standing tall.
Ironically, Brian Gionta scored more last night than the rest of his team has in the last two games – without using his stick.
“I just drove to the net. It was just a matter of facing the right way,” Gionta said. The two goals, the Devils’ entire offense in last night’s 2-1 victory over the Penguins, deflected off his legs.
The second one, which went down as his first of the season, came with only 7:20 remaining and snapped the Devils’ three-game winless streak – a drought that equaled their longest of all last season.
“When you’ve done what this team has done the last few years, you don’t panic,” Gionta said.
But the Devils, who had blown leads in each of their four previous non-victories, had to fight through foul feelings of deja vu that arose after the Penguins tied the game with only 6.5 seconds left in the second.
“Initially, that ‘You gotta be kidding me’ feeling comes into the locker room, but then we said that one is not going to beat us,” Jamie Langenbrunner said. “We stuck with it.”
The Devils now have something to draw upon, as they play host tonight to the Bruins and seek their first Meadowlands victory of the season. The current three-game home winless start is their worst in 14 years.
Because they hadn’t suffered a winless streak longer than three games since 2001-02, the sour season that cost Larry Robinson the coaching job, the Devils played with urgency last night.
Brian Rafalski was credited with the Devils’ fifth game-opening goal in six starts at 14:17 of the first, when his wrister from the right boards deflected off Gionta’s leg.
“I’m not going to say anything,” Gionta said of not being credited with the goal. “Nope.”
The Devils’ evening threatened to unravel when Rafalski was caught for the Penguins’ lone goal. Defenseman Dan Focht head-manned to Mario Lemieux at the blue line, and Lemieux sent Mike Eastwood in on left wing, 2-on-1, behind Rafalski. Colin White dove to try to block Eastwood’s passing lane to Martin Straka, but Eastwood skirted White and made the pass. Straka, who had a step on Erik Rasmussen, hit the open side.
But Gionta’s third-period leg work brought the Devils their second victory of the year. Gomez’s left-side pass went off the stick of defender Brooks Orpik and caromed in off Gionta’s left skate. The play was reviewed, and the goal allowed.