Parked in front of the crease, the long-armed Langenbrunner reached to his right and swept home a rebound of Colin White's slapper above the left circle, thus ending a night that contained a string of strange, almost macabre goals.
Langenbrunner's first of the night, for the 1-0 lead, came compliments of a side-of-the-crease backward kick by Bruins center Marc Savard. Zach Parise made it 2-0 in the second when his centering pass from behind the net angled in off the back of Tim Thomas. Chuck Kobasew scored the first of three straight for the Bruins, but it was actually Devils defenseman Bryce Salvador who shot it into the net, failing to clear it from the crease after Kobasew was knocked to the ice by Andy Greene. Later in the third period, with 1:45 left, Patrik Elias knocked home the equalizer when a Brian Gionta relay off the left side banked in off the streaking forward's left shin pad.
"It was a battle of who was going to score the most goals on themselves," said Thomas.
That about says it. Flow? Forget it. Style? C'mon. The Devils, who have parlayed defensive grit and determination into three Stanley Cups, don't abide flow. Whenever they can't throttle their opponent in the neutral zone, they scurry like mad dogs to try again, again, and again on the backcheck. They hit. They gnaw. They frustrate. And when they crack the offensive zone, whatever they lack in finesse, they make up for in crowding the crease rugby-style and smacking away with the hope that something eventually gets across the goal line.
"You know, we can lick our wounds and think they were unfortunate goals," mused Bruins defenseman Aaron Ward. "But you know, they all count. We have to score some of those goals. That's a third-effort team. They're very resilient. And when you get in there, you don't have a lot of time because their backcheck is always there."
