NHL STANLEY CUP Mighty Ducks blank Devils in OT to tie series at 2

Pivotal Game 5 will be played Thursday in New Jersey.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- The Anaheim Mighty Ducks have taken away the New Jersey Devils' series lead, their momentum and, it would seem, their confidence.
Could they take away the Stanley Cup next?
The Mighty Ducks can't seem to score in regulation time, but they can't seem to lose in overtime. They seemingly had no reason to still be in the finals -- wasn't the Devils' four-game sweep supposed to be over by now? -- but not only are the Ducks in them, they could win them.
No team in 32 years has rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the finals to win the Stanley Cup, but the Mighty Ducks are threatening to do exactly that following consecutive overtime games on home ice.
The Devils still can raise the Cup with two more victories, too, but those suddenly figure to be much harder to get than they previously imagined.
Series-tying goal
The Mighty Ducks won their seventh playoff overtime game, and their second in three nights, as Steve Thomas' goal beat the Devils 1-0 Monday night in Game 4 to tie what once was a very uneven series at two each.
"The pressure is on us," Devils defenseman Scott Stevens said.
How many would have thought that following the Devils' two dominating 3-0 shutout victories, when it looked like the Mighty Ducks might not score in the series, much less win a game?
"They're a mirror image of us," Devils goalie Martin Brodeur said. "They don't give you much. They scored only that one goal and that's usually not going to beat you, but it was enough for them."
It's always enough, it seems, for Mighty Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who in his first playoff run, already has only one fewer overtime victory (7) than Brodeur has (8) in 10 playoff seasons.
Seven in a row in OT
While Brodeur is only 8-18 in playoff overtime games, Giguere is the first NHL goalie to win his first seven overtime games.
Getting Jiggy with it, indeed. The Devils? They're just getting nervous.
The Devils talked of going back home Thursday, winning Game 5 and putting all the pressure back on the Mighty Ducks. The Devils are 10-1 in the postseason at home, where the Ducks have yet to score.
But what if they don't get that first goal? Anaheim is 10-0 when it scores first. And what if it goes to overtime?
"We're going to stay positive," Stevens said. "We've beaten this team twice and we had two games in overtime. Like I said, we're going to keep our heads."
But the Devils' margin of error -- they needed to win only once in Anaheim to essentially wrap up the series -- has evaporated. They are the team pressing to score goals, not the Ducks, after getting only two in two games at the Pond.
Low-scoring Ducks
The Mighty Ducks have scored only four goals in four games yet, remarkably, could find themselves a home-ice victory away from raising the Cup should they find a way to win Thursday.
Thomas, who owns the NHL record with 13 overtime game-winning goals in regular season play, sensed the Ducks were very confident even after Brodeur and Giguere dueled to a standoff in regulation play.
"We go out there and play our game, go after them [in overtime]," Giguere said. "We're not scared to lose. We go out there to win."
It took them only 39 seconds to do exactly that in the fourth-fastest NHL playoff overtime game.
Brodeur initially stopped Samuel Pahlsson's shot, but the puck deflected out to the right circle, where Thomas cleanly put it past Brodeur.
"I thought their D-man was going to get to it," Thomas said. "I just went to the net, and it came right to me and I shot it.
"When you have an opportunity to score an overtime goal like that, that's the ultimate."
Seventh seed
No, the ultimate for the Ducks would be winning the Stanley Cup. That was considered an unreachable accomplishment when they were only the seventh-seed going into the Western Conference playoffs, and again when they fell behind the Devils 2-0.
"When I look around the locker room and I see it in the guys' eyes, I know we have a good chance of winning," said Thomas, who came to the Ducks in a trading deadline deal. "We're just not going to go away."
Yes, they are -- to New Jersey for a Game 5 it once seemed they would never play.
"It's not over yet," Stevens said.
Not at all.
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