Ruslan Salei scored off Adam Oates’ faceoff win at 6:59 into overtime to give the Mighty Ducks, who took advantage of one of the biggest misplays of Brodeur’s career, a 3-2 win over the New Jersey Devils in Game 3 Saturday night.
Oates fed the puck off the faceoff to Salei at the top of the slot, and Brodeur barely reacted to his one-timer as the Ducks improved to 6-0 in OT during these playoffs. The Devils are 2-2.
It was essentially a must-win game for the Ducks, who played with the desperation expected of a team that trailed 2-0 in the best-of-seven series and almost certainly would have had no chance to raise the Cup had they lost.
Game 4 will be Monday night, when either the Devils will take a commanding 3-1 lead or the Ducks will tie a series they seemed out of following two 3-0 wins by the Devils in New Jersey.
Overtime playoff wins have largely been responsible for Anaheim’s remarkable playoff run, which began with three consecutive series-opening OT victories.
Goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere has been unbeatable in extra time, with an NHL-record overtime scoreless streak of 166 minutes, 4 seconds. He broke Patrick Roy’s record of 162:56 early in the OT.
Giguere turned aside 29 of 31 shots in by far his best game of this series.
