Carter gives Kings chokehold on Cup

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The New Jersey Devils' Steve Bernier (right) skates away as the Los Angeles Kings celebrate Jeff Carter's winning goal in overtime Saturday night. (CP)

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Los Angeles Kings' Jonathan Quick stopped 32 shots to lead the Kings to their 10th straight playoff road win. (CP)

NEWARK, N.J. -- Dean Lombardi paid a big price for Jeff Carter, but the Los Angeles Kings' GM is very comfortable with his purchase.

Carter scored the winner at 13:42 of the first overtime period on Saturday night to give his Kings a 2-1 win over the New Jersey Devils and a 2-0 chokehold on this best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final.

"This is by far the biggest, for sure, my first playoff OT goal. Gets us where we want to be," said Carter.

The Kings, by virtue of a pair of OT wins here in Jersey, are now 10-0 on the road in the post-season and head home for two games at the Staples Center on Monday and Wednesday. Los Angeles, members of the NHL since 1967, have never won a Stanley Cup but now are in position to do it on home ice.

Carter came up from behind the New Jersey net and moved off the boards to the middle of the ice before uncorking a wrist shot that slid by Devils goalie Martin Brodeur, who was screened on the play by Winkler native Dustin Penner.

"He's a goal scorer and you count on him to come up with big goals and he delivered (tonight)," said Kings coach Darryl Sutter.

The Kings struggled to score goals this season and Lombardi, with no guarantee he had a playoff team on his hands, made a whopper of a deal at the trade deadline, shipping former first-round pick Jack Johnson and a conditional first-round pick to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Carter.

The deal reunited Carter with his former Philadelphia Flyers teammate and friend Mike Richards and has paid big dividends for the Kings -- none bigger than Saturday night's goal.

"Carter is a game-breaker. You might not notice him at times but then at the end of the night he's got a couple points on the scoresheet," said Kings forward Justin Williams. "He works hard to get his space and get his shot off. This goal, that's what he's about. He comes through with big goals at big moments."

Richards and Carter were once the cornerstones of the Flyers organization, signed to long-term deals and expected to deliver titles. Despite giving the organization a Calder Cup as rookies right out of junior with the Philadelphia Phantoms and then leading the big club to the Stanley Cup round in 2010, management fell out of love with the duo and traded them away last summer. Richards went to the Kings and Carter to the Blue Jackets.

"Getting Jeff here has been great," said Richards, who was dangerous throughout Saturday's game. "We signed long-term deals in Philly to win together. That's what we dreamed about, winning the Stanley Cup. We haven't done it yet. We can't look at the big picture right now, but have to stay focused on just the next game. But anytime you can do something with your best friend, it's great."

The Kings took a 1-0 lead in the first period as Drew Doughty drew comparisons to Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey with a weaving end-to-end rush that ended with a wrist shot past Brodeur.

"Made a great play. You know what, a 200-foot play, right? One of those coast-to-coast things. You'll look at it a lot of times. Win or lose, that's a great play," said Sutter.

The Devils, just like in Game 1, did not wilt and kept pounding away. They finally got the equalizer in the third period when Ryan Carter tipped a point shot from Marek Zidlicky past Kings goalie Jonathan Quick.

Quick was brilliant, making any number of difficult saves and has outplayed Brodeur to this point of the series. Brodeur has let a pair of so-so goals in while the only way to beat Quick has been to screen him and tip the puck past him, or have it deflect off one of his own players.

The Kings have been solid, but not much better than the Devils in the first two games, and the play of the goaltenders has been a determining factor. Quick has been great, Brodeur just good.

"That's what a Vezina candidate and a Conn Smythe candidate does, comes up big in those situations during a game," said Penner of Quick.

Sutter has had little time for talk about his team's perfect road record in the playoffs and shrugged off that line of questioning again Saturday night.

"We got to go home. We got to play at home. I'd hate to say that we went undefeated on the road," said Sutter, meaning at the end of this playoff he'd like to be able to claim a much larger feat, such as winning the Cup.

Devils coach Pete DeBoer saw positives in his team's play.

"Yeah, it's tough. But, you know, you can't feel sorry for yourself. We played a much better game. I knew we would respond. We did it the right way. You know, came up one goal short," said DeBoer. "

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @garylawless

Gary Lawless, Winnipeg Free Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 3, 2012 B3