Devils close to final return

Elias celebrates opening the scoring

New Jersey Devils 5-0 Pittsburgh Penguins
(Devils lead best-of-seven series 3-1)

Stanley Cup holders the New Jersey Devils took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final series with an emphatic 5-0 demolition of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Goaltender Martin Brodeur saved 21 shots in a second successive clean sheet as the Devils moved within one win of a return to the Cup decider.

"Our guys are coming together at the right time, really working together," Brodeur said.

Brodeur earned his second straight shutout

Brian Rafalski set a Devils' record for most playoff goals by a backliner in a season with his sixth and seventh strikes.

Patrick Elias extended his points-scoring streak to nine games, the longest in Devils' play-off history.

He began the scoring with a goal after 18:11 minutes, and Rafalski and Petr Sykora pushed the advantage to 3-0 with second-period goals.

Jason Arnott made it 4-0 early in the third period and Rafalski finished off the romp with his second goal at 13:14 as the Devils seized a commanding lead in the series.

The Devils can tie up the series with victory in Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

"This is the way we always wanted to play in the play-offs," said New Jersey captain Scott Stevens.

The usually high-scoring Penguins have scoreless for 134 minutes and 41 seconds.

They had never been shut out in back-to-back play-off games. On Thursday, Brodeur handed them their first home shutout loss since 1975.

They may be the best team that I've played agains

  Mario Lemieux praises the Devils

Five-time NHL scoring champion Jaromir Jagr, rumoured to be traded by Pittburgh in the off-season, has been held scoreless in the series.

On Saturday, Jagr had just two shots, one more than Mario Lemieux.

Lemieux, the Penguins' part-owner who left the owners' box to return to the ice this season, paid tribute to the Devils.

"They may be the best team that I've played against," he said.