Devils goalie Martin Brodeur has been here before.

Nine times he has been in goal for a Game 7 and five times he has emerged with a victory.

Now, after a 3-2 overtime win over the Florida Panthers in Game 6 Tuesday night, Brodeur will once again try to keep the Devils' season alive Thursday night in Florida.

"The guys stayed with it and didn't change because we didn't score goals," Brodeur said of Tuesday night's dramatic win. "We didn't change the way our coach wanted us to play. I think it's important when you get to these tight games to believe in your forecheck in the way you try to create some offense. We did that and we got rewarded for it."

The Devils outshot the Panthers, 42-16.

"It's tough," Brodeur said. "Especially when it's a tie game like that and you know the next shot is going to be the shot that could make a difference, like tonight, to send us home. When you don't get many shots your mind starts wandering a little bit. It gets tough.

"I just try to stay positive even thought we gave up another two-goal lead. I just said, 'The next save could be the big one and I was able to make one late in the third on (Mikael) Samuelsson and we pulled it off in overtime."

* * *

Their season was on the line. Actually, there was a lot more than that on the line for the Devils as they left the ice and headed for their dressing room between the third period and overtime.



So what did they do between periods with another first-round playoff exit hanging over their heads?



"It was pretty good. We talked. It was emotional. We knew that we could do it," Ilya Kovalchuk said. "We know our fans were right behind us and we felt that energy all game long."



They were confident after a scoreless third period.



"The guys just wanted to rest up and get back at it," said goalie Martin Brodeur, who snapped a personal five-game losing streak in games the team faced elimination.



"We know we controlled the play. Guys were excited to see we gave them only three shots (in the third) and we had tons of chances. We said, 'This is a good formula. If we go back out and do the same thing we'll get rewarded.' And that's what happened."

* * *

Travis Zajac, who scored the winning OT goal, was hurt when Marcel Goc landed on his legs after a faceoff with 5:45 left in the second period. He walked off the injury, which he said was not his Achilles, in the runway leading to the dressing room and was back soon afterwards.



"I got kind of tangled up and fell weird," Zajac said. "For a second there it stung. After that it was alright."



Coach Pete DeBoer said the coaching staff immediately began making plans if Zajac was hurt.



"We started to make some adjustments on the bench to move some guys around, figuring that he might not be back," DeBoer said. "It was nice to see him back out there."

