By Andy Kent

FOR THE STAR-LEDGER

SUNRISE, Fla. — Experience is priceless in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which is why both coaches in this first-round series between the Devils and Florida Panthers are leaning on their veterans.

Devils coach Peter DeBoer has the luxury of having a combined 52 years of NHL experience among his four key veteran skaters — Patrick Elias, Dainius Zubrus, Petr Sykora and Ilya Kovalchuk. Add in another 18 years with future Hall-of-Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur, and that’s nearly three-quarters of a century of puck wisdom.

“They’re critical, not only to the young guys but to the coaches, too,” said DeBoer, who is making his playoff debut behind the bench.

“The veterans in the room help the young guys, and we’ve got a lot of experience in there. I think between that group I think everybody has either seen it or been there personally so it’s a great resource for me to go to.”

Elias, Zubrus and Sykora made up DeBoer’s starting line tonight in Game 2 at the BankAtlantic Center, which the Panthers won, 4-2. During the regular season they combined for 166 points (64 goals, 102 assists) and in Friday night’s 3-2 win in Game 1, Zubrus and Elias scored two of the goals.

Coming off of that series-opening victory, DeBoer stuck with his practice of resting his players, letting those veterans prepare themselves for the second game. He was banking on the team responding the way it did during the latter part of the regular season.

“I don’t think there’s any such thing as too much rest, and I think our history over the last half of the season is when we’re rested we play well and when fatigue sets in a little bit we don’t,” DeBoer said.

“So we’re going to control that the best we can and we also have a lot of veterans in that room that know their bodies a lot better than I do.”

However, the Panthers rode the momentum from their strong final 40 minutes of Game 1 and jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two periods last night.

Kovalchuk came to Brodeur’s aid with a clutch goal that narrowed the gap to 3-2 just 2:02 into the third period after Travis Zajac had scored 48 seconds in to end the shutout.

Zubrus followed with a crucial clear of the puck from the crease after it slipped behind Brodeur, but Florida held on to even the series, with Tomas Fleischmann’s empty-net goal at the buzzer sealing it.

“We addressed it at the start of the third that we had a good 40 minutes, but the game’s not over and we had to come out and play well,” said Panthers defenseman Ed Jovanovski, the most vested player on the roster with 16 seasons. “Unfortunately, things happened pretty quick with the first one coming on a tough bounce and a little breakdown at the blue line right back to (Zajac’s) stick.

“I think it’s all about how quick you capture that momentum back.”

Panthers rookie head coach Kevin Dineen also has his fair share of veteran leadership at his disposal, led by Jovanovski and ex-Devils defenseman John Madden. Defenseman Brian Campbell, in his 12th season, and 10-year veteran forward Mikael Samuelsson came up big last night with assists on two of the goals, and 10-year veteran forward Stephen Weiss scored both power-play goals.

Dineen was wary of what the Devils were capable of going into the third period, specifically because of Kovalchuk, Elias, Zubrus and Sykora. Having played 20 seasons in the NHL himself, he also knew no win in the playoffs comes easy.

“You’ve got to respect your opponent and they’ve got a talented group out there,” Dineen said. “The guys that scored the goals are big-game players and then we showed some resiliency at the end.”