Maybe the Devils don’t need to board a plane for their flight to Los Angeles. Maybe the Devils can simply ride Air Brodeur across the country for tomorrow night’s Game 6 against the Kings.
They are only halfway home, have done only half of the heavy lifting necessary before they can do the lifting every single one of them lives and strives for, the lifting of the 34.5-pound chalice, but if the Devils are only halfway home now, that is somewhere noteworthy when only five days ago they were going nowhere fast.
“It’s a different kind of thing to get yourself ready for this kind of game, two in a row,” Martin Brodeur said after yet another throwback performance in his team’s 2-1 Game 5 victory at the Rock that makes tomorrow night necessary. “It drains you and takes a lot out of you, but it’s worth it.
“They [the Kings] have been so close, I’m sure it’s getting to them a little bit, all the chances to end it.”
DEVILS FORCE FINALS BACK TO L.A.
Two chances down and two chances to go for the Kings, who carried the play most of the way, yet were thwarted for the second time in the four nights by Brodeur, whose own team mustered just four shots in the first period and three in the third.
There is history in the making here; history that can be made by the team with the pedigree, the team with the all-time goaltender who has reached all the way back perhaps even to 17 years ago when he won his first of three Stanley Cups as a 23-year-old.
“I wish I was that eloquent so I could phrase it for you [for what Marty means to us],” said coach Pete DeBoer, who has maintained equanimity throughout this tournament. “His performance speaks for itself. The timing of it with us 10-1 in Games 4-through-7 in our series is a testament to how he enjoys the pressure.”
Brodeur faced only 25 shots, but it was the timing of the saves, just the way it’s always been throughout a career during which he spent the first 11 years playing behind the Hall of Fame Great Scotts on defense — Stevens and Niedermayer.
Last night, not 90 seconds after the Kings had tied the score 1-1 early in the second — cancelling a first-period goal scored by the relentless Zach Parise, who took advantage of a Jonathan Quick puck-handling gaffe — it was Brodeur sliding to make a bottom pad save on a Jarret Stoll breakaway that allowed the Devils to breathe.
And then in the third, the 40-year-old held his ground while the Kings crashed his net in waves, jostling him at every turn in attempts to aggravate the goaltender, who simply laughed it off, like the time Jeff Carter pulled No. 30’s jersey over his head but escaped without a call.
“I got punched and had my jersey pulled over my head, not much more happened,” Brodeur said. “I was smiling. I couldn’t believe they didn’t call a penalty.”
Parise played his most compelling game yet, as did linemates Travis Zajac and Ilya Kovalchuk. The Devils got into lanes and blocked shots while upright. Bryce Salvador, reinventing himself as Doug Harvey, scored the winner. Henrik Tallinder was outstanding. Not a single Devil yielded.
But again, the backbone of the team was Brodeur. If it were truly necessary 18 years into an incomparable career, this has been the spring during which “Maaaarty…Maaaarty” has re-established a legacy of historic proportions, reminding everyone of who and what he has been and who and what he is.
“It’s exciting to do what we’re doing, but we haven’t done anything yet,” said Brodeur, a prime candidate for his first Conn Smythe. “It’s important for us to keep it low-key and keep grinding it out.
“These are fun games to be a part of. I’m enjoying the ride.”
Now the Devils ride on Air Brodeur, halfway to history, halfway to the Stanley Cup.
larry.brooks@nypost.com