Devils hope to regroup, rebuild lead against Mighty Ducks tonight

New Jersey's 2-0 lead in the finals was cut to 2-1 by the Mighty Ducks Saturday.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- A stick slipped away, then the game did. Now the New Jersey Devils must be worrying the Stanley Cup finals are slipping away from them, too.
The Devils, leading the Mighty Ducks 2-1 but no longer the near-perfect team they were in the first two games, go into a pivotal Game 4 tonight at the Pond with the chance to again take firm control of the series.
"They won on their home ice, now we've got to get one," Devils forward Scott Gomez said.
But after all but stealing a 3-2 overtime victory Saturday night, when goalie Martin Brodeur gave up the softest of goals to Sandis Ozolinsh after inexplicably losing his stick, the Mighty Ducks believe they've gotten the break they needed to get back in the series.
"Sometimes you need them, and maybe that's the confidence we need to get rolling," Ducks forward Adam Oates said.
And what a break they got: Teams have lost on holding the stick penalties, but rarely because their goalie couldn't hold onto his stick.
As a result, there's no longer any talk about a Devils sweep, or that the Mighty Ducks were a fluke who couldn't possibly pull off another playoff upset after previously eliminating the Red Wings and Stars.
"We have to respect them, and we do respect them in all ends of it," Devils coach Pat Burns said. "One [game] got away from us. We have to stand together as a team and come back and fight for it."
Certainly, the series, and the momentum, would swing the Devils' way again if they win tonight and go back home with the chance to raise the cup Thursday night.
But now that the Mighty Ducks have gotten to Brodeur after failing to get the puck past him for two games, the Ducks know he -- and his team -- can be beaten.
More confident
"It happens all the time in the finals, where you get there and suddenly a team plays well and you don't play well and you build them into something they're not," Ducks coach Mike Babcock said. "Let's worry about us and do what we do. We think we're going to be a lot better [in Game 4] because we were a long way from being as capable as we can be."
Stanley Cup finals have swung before on bad bounces, lucky breaks and abrupt turnarounds, and Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere is hoping Brodeur's gaffe can do the same thing.