-- Jamie Langenbrunner scored on a rebound 3:04 into overtime and the Devils rallied from a two-goal, third-period deficit to a 3-2 victory over the Mighty Ducks on Tuesday night.
"I don't think we felt they were completely in charge,'' Langenbrunner said. "We felt we were on the brink of cracking them. We were just a second late everywhere.''
The Devils seemed to wake up after Marc Chouinard scored a shorthanded goal at 6:54 of the third period to give Anaheim a two-goal lead.
The lead lasted all of 84 seconds as Langenbrunner and Scott Gomez scored 29 seconds apart against Giguere, looking for his second straight shutout.
"We had our chances in the first and second periods,'' Devils coach Pat Burns said. "As soon as we got one back at 2-1, there was a great feeling on the bench. At 2-2, there was a lot of confidence.''
There was a celebration after the game-winner which was a bit of a gift from Giguere.
Defenseman Scott Stevens took a long shot from the blue line that Giguere failed to hold. The puck bounced right in front and Langenbrunner popped it over the goaltender into the net.
"It hit me in the arm,'' Giguere said of Stevens' shot. "Usually I try to keep the rebounds right in front of me. This one got away.''
Andy McDonald also scored for Anaheim, which had its three-game winning streak snapped by falling apart late.
The game was the first between the teams since their seven-player offseason trade that featured Petr Sykora being sent to Anaheim for Jeff Friesen and Oleg Tverdovsky. All three had assists, but they didn't decide the game.
The Devils seemingly were headed to their third straight home loss after Chouinard gave the Mighty Ducks a 2-0 lead with a shorthanded goal at 6:54 of the third period.
However, Langenbrunner and Gomez tied the game with quick goals. What made the goals so surprising was that Giguere had not given up a goal in 131 minutes, 28 seconds.
"We stuck with it,'' Gomez said. "When they scored the shorthanded goal we saw people get up and leave. You've got to give the team credit. Everyone hung in there. We knew eventually it was going to come.''
Langenbrunner snapped the streak by getting position on defenseman Niclas Havelid and tipping a nice pass from the sideboards by tough guy Jim McKenzie. Tverdovsky also got an assist on the play.
Friesen did most of the work on Gomez's goal at 8:18. He made a nice move against defenseman Kurt Sauer to get into the Mighty Ducks zone and found Gomez in the right circle for a shot that found the corner of the net.
McDonald staked Anaheim to an early lead by faking a drop pass to Sykora and rifling a shot through a screen past Martin Brodeur for his fourth goal of the season.
Chouinard stole the puck from defenseman Scott Niedermayer to set up his unassisted goal. His shot seemed to handcuff Brodeur, and it might have hit off the stick of a diving Brian Rafalski.
"We were in control, but we stopped playing long before they scored their first goal,'' Anaheim defenseman Keith Carney said. "We know we can't do that against good teams.''
| SCORING |
PENALTIES |
First Period: 1, Anaheim, Andy Mcdonald 4 (Jason Krog, Petr Sykora), 2:14.
Second Period: None.
Third Period: 2, Anaheim, Marc Chouinard 1 (shorthanded) (Unassisted), 6:54. 3, New Jersey, Jamie Langenbrunner 4 (Jim Mckenzie, Oleg Tverdovsky),7:49. 4, New Jersey, Scott Gomez 2 (Jeff Friesen, Scott Niedermayer),8:18.
Overtime: 5, New Jersey, Jamie Langenbrunner 5 (Scott Stevens), 3:04.
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First Period: J Nieuwendyk, Njd (interference), 4:05; M Brown, Ana (major fighting), 6:06; J Mckenzie, Njd (major fighting), 6:06; A Smirnov, Ana (holding), 7:18; T Stevenson, Njd (major fighting), 13:36; K Sawyer, Ana (major fighting), 13:36; B Rafalski, Njd (obstruction tripping), 13:48; S Rucchin, Ana (hooking), 18:18.
Second Period: A Mcdonald, Ana (holding), 3:25; C Berglund, Njd (high sticking), 4:40; O Tverdovsky, Njd (tripping), 7:32.
Third Period: 4M Cullen, Ana (holding), 5:42.
Overtime: None.
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Attendance: 15,043.
Referees: Chris Lee, Chris Rooney.
Linesmen: Don Henderson, Ray Scapinello.
