Devils take Game 4, avoid sweep

The series returns to New Jersey for Game 5

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

Adam Henrique scored the tie-breaking goal with 4:29 to play and Martin Brodeur made 21 saves as the New Jersey Devils beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 on Wednesday night to avoid a sweep in the Stanley Cup finals.

Patrik Elias and Ilya Kovalchuk also scored third-period goals for the Eastern Conference champion Devils, who forced the NHL to put the Stanley Cup back in its crate for another cross-country trip. Game 5 is Saturday night in Newark, N.J.

“It’s a tough situation, but we live another day,” Brodeur said. “We wanted to at least have one more game in our building for our fans. Hopefully, we’ll make the best of it and come back here.”

The Kings have won all 10 of their road playoff games this spring and 12 straight overall — both NHL postseason records. But after never trailing in the Stanley Cup finals, the Kings never led in Game 4.

After two tense, scoreless periods in front of fans hoping to see the Kings win their first title in their 45-year history, Elias scored on a rebound with 12:04 to play.

Drew Doughty scored a tying power-play goal for the Kings 1:02 later, but Henrique scored on a slick pass from David Clarkson, and Kovalchuk added an empty-netter that sent fans streaming forlornly out into a warm evening in Southern California.

Jonathan Quick stopped 21 shots for the Kings, but lost his streak of nearly 139 shutout minutes right when he probably could have wrapped up the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

Los Angeles set an NHL record by taking a 3-0 lead in all four of its playoff series, but failed three times to close out its opponents in Game 4. Vancouver and Phoenix also won Game 4 before losing Game 5.

The Devils became just the sixth of 26 teams in finals history to force a Game 5 after falling behind 3-0. Only the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs ever rallied with four straight wins in the finals, and only three teams in NHL history have done it in any playoff round.

After a tight-checking game between two very tight teams, Elias’ rebound goal put a hush over Staples Center. Six seconds after Clarkson went off with a questionable boarding penalty, Mike Richards passed Anze Kopitar’s faceoff win to Doughty, who rocketed a long shot past Brodeur for the fourth goal of his breakthrough postseason.

But after so many minutes of tight defense, New Jersey won it with a stunning goal in transition: Former Kings forward Alexei Ponikarovsky got the puck to Clarkson, who found Henrique across the ice for his first goal since ending the Eastern Conference finals with an overtime goal.

Slava Voynov and Kopitar hit Brodeur’s posts for the Kings in the scoreless first period. Both teams appeared to be as tense as the crowd in the second.