His glove was as good as its been all postseason, there was no soft goals, and there was nothing but confidence from the guys in front of him, knowing that he has been here before and played his best when he has been needed most.
So it was almost a shock to see the puck slide past Devils’ goalie Martin Brodeur, coming off the stick of Jeff Carter and somehow snaking through traffic and inside the near post, 13:42 into overtime of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals, giving the Kings a 2-1 win and a 2-0 series edge.
“I had a hard time finding the puck where he was holding it,” Brodeur said afterward, no hint of discouragement coming from his 40-year-old voice. “We had some great chances. A little luck there, the outcomes of the games are different.”
Brodeur made a total of 30 saves to follow up his 23-save performance in Wednesday’s Game 1, another 2-1 overtime loss. He flashed his glove on repeated occasions, none more important than just over seven minutes into overtime when Ilya Kovalchuk turned the puck over to Mike Richards, who fired a wide-open wrist shot from the left circle.
Up went Brodeur’s left shoulder, the red and white of his left-hand leather becoming a blur, and the puck disappeared into his equipment like it has so many times before.
“I felt good,” Brodeur said. “I made the saves that you can make. It’s just the bounces here and there that make the difference in tight games. The puck is going to them. It’s not just us, it’s every single team they’ve played on the road so far.”
The Kings have now won 10 straight road games this playoffs, matching a mark set by the 1995 Devils, a team that Brodeur lead to the first of three Stanley Cups in the time thereafter. Now, this is a very different team and a very different goalie, yet it is again on the shoulders of Brodeur to try and lead them to glory.
“Marty has kept us in it all playoffs,” said Stephen Gionta, the gritty fourth-liner who is becoming a playoff force. “We don’t expect anything different from him.”
Brodeur, though nine years removed from his last hoisting of Lord Stanley’s chalice, expects much of the same.
“We’re competing as well as we can and we have no shame in the way we’ve been playing,” Brodeur said. “We just have to find a way to win, that’s the bottom line.”