NEWARK, N.J. — Jeff Carter scored at 13:42 in overtime and the Los Angeles Kings moved within two wins of their first NHL title with a 2-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals Saturday night.
Jonathan Quick made 32 saves and Drew Doughty scored on a magnificent end-to-end rush as the Kings won their 10th straight road game this postseason, and their 12th in a row over the last two seasons. Both are NHL records.
The Kings are now 14-2 in the playoffs, and they once again have another opponent wondering what’s going on.
New Jersey had won eight of 10 games in beating the Flyers and Rangers in the last two rounds in the Eastern Conference. Now the Devils are in desperate need of a victory in Game 3 at the Staples Center on Monday night.
This marked the first time in 61 years that Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup finals were decided in overtime. The last occasion was the epic 1951 Stanley Cup matchup, where all five games between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens went to extra time. The Maple Leafs captured the Cup.
Carter ended this one with a great individual effort after the Kings outshot New Jersey 11-3 in OT, and only Martin Brodeur kept the Devils in the game.
Carter, one of a handful of former Philadelphia Flyers playing for the Kings, corralled a rebound from behind the net, preventing the Devils from grabbing a much-needed line change. He rolled around into the slot, from Brodeur’s right-hand side, and let a wrist shot off that beat the standout goaltender along the ice on his stick side with Dustin Penner in front of the net as a screen, left unguarded.
It was Carter’s fifth of the postseason and it gave the Kings another big advantage in a series. The eighth-seeded Kings opened 3-0 leads in each of the first three rounds in the Western Conference.
That could come on Monday, when Game 3 is held in Los Angeles.
On this night, the Kings all gathered around Carter just off the Brodeur’s left in the faceoff circle. For the second time in as many games, Brodeur looked up to the sky, picked himself up, and skated off an overtime loser at home.
The Devils’ best OT chance came when Quick stopped a blast by Kovalchuk in the opening minutes. The Russian nearly won the game in the closing seconds of regulation after a turnover set him up in the right circle, but his shot banged off the crossbar after Kings center Anze Kopitar hurried the attempt.
Zach Parise also had a jam shot on the edge of the crease with 4:08 to play and a shot from the left circle that Quick smothered with 90 seconds to go in regulation.
Brodeur also came up big in the third period. He stopped Kopitar, who had the overtime score in Game 1, in close with 10:30 left in the period, and Dwight King from the right circle less than a minute later.
Quick seemed headed for his third shutout of the postseason when the Devils suddenly found a way to beat him early in the third period, just seconds after a Kings flurry in the Devils’ end. Of course, it was the fourth line that stepped up after contributing so much in the series win over the Rangers.
Steve Bernier kept the puck alive in the right corner, and passed to Marek Zidlicky on the point. Zidlicky’s slap shot was tipped by an unguarded Ryan Carter in the slot and it went into the corner of the net behind Quick, who was screened by Stephen Gionta.
Until then, it seemed as if Doughty’s spectacular goal was going to be the game winner. The defenseman picked up the puck between the circles, skated past David Clarkson at the Kings’ blue line and sped through the neutral zone. He avoided a stick check by Carter entering the Devils’ zone and fired a shot between defenseman Bryce Salvador’s legs that beat Brodeur to the corner of the net.
Doughty let out a scream as the puck went in and then skated back to his bench to accept congratulations for his third goal of the postseason.
The Devils had the better of the play in the first period, thanks in part to better forechecking and two power plays. But Doughty’s end-to-end rush and Quick’s goaltending had Los Angeles ahead 1-0.
Quick’s best saves came on a tip in front by Dainius Zubrus with just under eight minutes left in the period and a follow-up rebound by Parise.
The goaltender also seemed to make a skate save on a blast from the left circle by Kovalchuk on a power play, but the Russian was not given a shot in the box score.
Playing in his 200th postseason game, Brodeur faced six shots in the opening period but several were quality chances. The 40-year-old stoned Mike Richards on his doorstep with 6:45 left in the period and got him again late in the second after Dustin Penner set up the former Flyer in the left circle.
Brodeur also had snapping glove saves on Justin Williams and Colin Fraser in keep the Devils in the game.
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