Devils Top Ducks

While the New Jersey Devils don't have showstoppers like Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne, they had other ingredients to beat the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, a little luck and Martin Broduer.

Defenseman Lyle Odelein scored a somewhat lucky game winner with 7:26 to play and Brodeur stopped Kariya and Selanne three times in close in the final minutes as the Devils defeated the Mighty Ducks 3-2 on Wednesday night.

Not only did the Devils give up good scoring chances after Bobby Holik set up Odelein's first goal, but they allowed two of the best players in the game to get them.

Brodeur stopped Kariya on an odd-man rush less than a minute after Odelein's goal. He stopped Selanne on a point-blank shot with about three minutes later and he came up with the save of the game on Kariya with 1:05 to go.

Steve Rucchin, who had Anaheim's second goal, set up Kariya on the edge of the goaltender's crease and Brodeur made a sprawling toe save while on his belly.

"I had to make a few big saves at the end and I got a little lucky on the last one," said Brodeur, who finished with 27 saves. "The guy couldn't get it up over my pads. I spread as much as I could and got my big toe on it."

Kariya, who got his first goal of the season in the first period, raised his stick after taking the shot and then looked back in disbelief.

"I thought I had it," Kariya said. "I let him have a chance to make a save and he made a great one. All I had to do was get it up and it was a goal."

Odelein's game winner was a bang-bang play. Holik, who scored his fifth goal in the game, beat Rucchin on a faceoff and sent to puck back to Odelein on the right point.

"All I was doing was just trying to get it on net and get a rebound, a tip or a screen," Odelein said.

What he got instead was a piece of Rucchin's skates and that deflected the puck over the shoulder of goaltender Guy Hebert.

"I never saw it," said Hebert, who had 23 saves. "Bam, it was gone from my line of sight. It just changed direction enough. Ruch is doing a great job trying to block a shot. What can you do?"

Sergei Brylin also scored for New Jersey.

The loss was the first in as many road games for the Mighty Ducks, who had a two-game winning streak snapped. The game opened a five-game road trip for Anaheim.

The Mighty Ducks twice took one-goal leads in a game that was wide open by Devils standards.

Kariya opened the scoring at 4:12 of the first period, deflecting a shot from the point by Pavel Trnka past Brodeur for his first goal of the season.

Holik tied it in the opening minute of the second period with a backhander in close on a power play.

Rucchin put Anaheim back in front with an unassisted goal at the 2:30 mark. He intercepted a pass along the side boards by Odelein and beat Brodeur with a deflected shot from the point that caught the goaltender off balance.

Brylin worked a give-and-go play with Vadim Sharifijanov in beating Hebert from between the circles 1:27 later.

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