Devils Punish Flyers, Win East

The New Jersey Devils finished the greatest comeback in a conference final, and they may have finished off Eric Lindros as well.

Patrik Elias scored his second goal of the game with 2:32 to play as the Devils beat the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 on Friday night in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final.

The Devils won the final three games of the series, but the clincher will forever be remembered for Scott Stevens' first-period hit on Lindros that knocked out the Flyers' former captain for the fourth time this season.

"I know it was a clean hit," said Stevens, who caught an unsuspecting Lindros looking down at the ice. "I don't like to see anyone get hurt. That's the bottom line. It felt a little tough playing after that."

After the game, the NHL levied a $10,000 fine against the Flyers, apparently for not releasing information on Lindros' injury.

Stevens, who was booed after he hit Lindros and again after the game when he accepted the Prince of Wales Trophy, said he wouldn't be doing much celebrating.

A team known more for its playoffs failures the past three years, the Devils advanced to their first Stanley Cup final since winning the title in 1995. They will play the winner of Saturday night's Game 7 between the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche in a final that will open in New Jersey on Tuesday.

"It's tough to believe, down 3-1," Devils veteran Ken Daneyko said. "I know after Game 4 I was pretty demoralized. But you seem to rally yourself and get your sprits up."

Devils coach Larry Robinson, who replaced Robbie Ftorek with eight games left in the regular season, helped in that regard. The Hall of Famer issued a garbage-can kicking tirade after a 3-1 loss in Game 4 that seemed to get the Devils refocused on their defensive game.

Over the final three games, the Flyers scored just three goals against Martin Brodeur, losing the final two games by 2-1 margin.

Rick Tocchet had the Flyers' only goal in Game 7, tying the game 1-1 in the second period.

However, Elias came through for the Devils, who are trying to win a second Stanley Cup for outgoing owner John McMullen. He has agreed to sell the team to YankeeNets in a deal that will be completed in July.

All season long, it had been Philadelphia which found a way in the face of adversity.

Coach Roger Neilson was stricken with cancer in February, Lindros went through a series of concussions and the team struggled.

However, the Flyers rallied around interim coach Craig Ramsay and caught the Devils in the final month of the season to win the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

With the score 1-1 and the crowd of 20,037 cheering on every shift, the Devils' Alexander Mogilny wrapped the puck around the boards from behind the net to Jason Arnott, who was in the right circle. Arnott tossed a pass into the slot to Elias, who knocked it past Brian Boucher.

"Arnie kind of fanned on his shot and I snuck from behind the net and (Dan) McGillis didn't see me," Elias said. "I lifted his stick up. I wasn't able to look at it, I just put the puck in the net. I don't know what I was feeling, such excitement and pride."

"It was one of them lucky bounce goals," Arnott added.

Before Friday's game, 15 teams had rallied from 3-1 deficits to win a playoff series. But the Devils are the first to do it in a conference final.

The greatest comeback in NHL history came in 1942 when the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Detroit Red Wings.

The last team to come back from a 3-1 deficit in thplayoffs was St. Louis, which defeated Phoenix in the 1999 Western Conference quarterfinals.

"This is not what we expected after having a 3-1 lead," said Eric Desjardins, who replaced Lindros as captain late in the season. "It was pretty tight the whole way tonight and one goal made the difference. It was a tough one for sure."

The injury to Lindros, coupled with the Elias' goal at 6:44 of the first period, seemed to take the air out of the Flyers and their sellout crowd early in the first period.

"He was reaching for the puck and was down really low when I hit him," Stevens said. "I feel just really bad about that."

The hit had an effect on Stevens.

"I had to go talk to him between periods because he was really down," Robinson said. "He felt really bad. He's a physical player, Scotty, but that really effected him. I think it bothered him for quite a time in that second period."

Even though they were down, the Flyers were far from out. They regrouped and tied the game in the second period on a power-play goal that was set up in a roundabout way by another Stevens' hit.

Rookie defenseman Andy Delmore, who missed a great chance in close in the opening minutes, took a shot from the left point that John LeClair stopped on the edge of the crease. The Flyers forward, who didn't score in the series, couldn't lift the puck over Devils goalie Martin Brodeur.

In the ensuing scramble, Stevens knocked LeClair into Brodeur and Tocchet had no problem lifting the puck over the prone goaltender for his fifth goal, his fourth this series.

A roughing penalty against Keith Jones had set up Elias' sixth goal of the playoffs. Bobby Holik controlled the puck along the left sideboards and found Arnott behind the goal line. He quickly sent a cross-ice pass to Elias low in the right circle, and Boucher had no chance to stop his shot at 6:44 of the opening period.

Just 1:06 later, Lindros was on the ice after absorbing a hit to his head from Stevens just inside the Devils' blueline.

Lindros had collected the puck in center ice and side-stepped Scott Niedermayer at the line skating into the zone. Lindros was looking at the puck and never saw Stevens lining him up. The Devils captain got into a crouch and checked Lindros, leading with his right rm for power. His tricep seemed to catch No 88 square in the head.

Lindros immediately fell backward and the back of his helmet slammed off the ice. He appeared already dazed before his head hit the ice.

Five minutes before the game, the noise from the crowd was so loud that people had to yell to talk to the person seated right next to them.

The building shook when Lauren Hart, the daughter of the late longtime Flyers play-by-play man Gene Hart, sang "God Bless America."

During the Flyers' glory days in the 1970s, Kate Smith's rendition of the song was the team's good-luck charm. She actually sang it live at four games, including May 13, 1975 when the Flyers beat the Islanders in Game 7 of the Cup semifinals, the last time Philadelphia won hockey's most prestigious trophy.

Smith came back the following year for Game 4 of the final, but Philadelphia lost 5-3 to the Montreal Canadiens, a team that included Robinson.

The Flyers rode the emotion in the opening five minutes, keeping the play in the Devils end.

Delmore, whose five goals in the conference semifinal rallied the Flyers from a 0-2 deficit, had the best scoring chance, joining a rush last to pick up a loose puck between the circle. But his attempt to lift the puck over Brodeur ended up in the stands, missing the net by a couple of feet.

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