Stanley Cup: Devils captain Zach Parise does what it takes to win

NHL » Captain will try to keep team from 2-0 deficit against L.A.

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"I’d have a better chance of scoring if I could throw it in the net," he said. "If that’s what’s going, I’ll try it out. He had no play. No one really had a stick in the area. We did a good job of covering the sticks and that’s the way it is, you’ll try anything."

Travis Zajac, Parise’s center, said he and forward Dainius Zubrus knew the goal would not count so they didn’t get too excited.

"No one was going to get a stick on it," Zajac said, "and I think he just tried to get the crowd going."

It worked ... for a bit.

"In that moment, I don’t think you think," Devils leading scorer Ilya Kovalchuk said. "You just try to put the puck in the net, and maybe it hits a stick. When you are that desperate, you try anything."

Heading into Game 2, the Devils and Kings are both promising to play better. Neither played well in Game 1 after long layoffs for both sides.

The Devils, however, have the pressure on them. They can’t afford to go to Los Angeles down 2-0 with Games 3 and 4 on the Kings’ ice Monday and Wednesday.

"Now it is new for us, losing the first game at home," Brodeur said. "We played well in Game 1 to a certain extent. We know what we did wrong. Now, we have to respond with a great effort, not a good one, a great one."

The Kings, who are 13-2 in the postseason, aren’t going to make it easy. They have won all nine of their road games this postseason and 11 overall dating to last season, both NHL records.

"They’re going to come out strong," Kopitar said. "They are going to be a desperate team because we did get Game 1, and they are going to try to get it back.

"We have to make sure we’re ready right off the get-go."

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