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The 2003 Stanley Cup Finals was a best-of-seven playoff series that determined the champion of the National Hockey League (NHL) for the 2002–03 season. As a culmination of the 2003 Stanley Cup playoffs, the second-seeded Eastern Conference champion New Jersey Devils defeated the seventh-seeded Western Conference champion Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in seven games and were awarded the Stanley Cup. It was New Jersey's first appearance since 2001 and third in four years. It was Anaheim's first-ever appearance. The Devils defeated the Mighty Ducks in seven games to win their third Stanley Cup in less than a decade.
The Devils win was the last in a series of wins they, along with the Colorado Avalanche and the Detroit Red Wings established in the era from 1995 to 2003, as the three teams won a combined eight of nine Stanley Cups during that time. The Devils won in 1995, followed by the Avalanche in 1996, then the Red Wings in 1997 and 1998. After the Dallas Stars won in 1999, the four-year cycle repeated as the Devils started it again in 2000, followed by Colorado in 2001 and Detroit in 2002.
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The New Jersey Devils were in the finals for their fourth time (third time in four years) after defeating the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning in five games, and beating the Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference Finals in seven games. Strong goaltending from Martin Brodeur, and strong defense from captain Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer led the way.
The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim entered their first Stanley Cup Finals in franchise history after upsetting two heavily favored teams: sweeping the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Detroit Red Wings, defeating the Dallas Stars in six games, plus sweeping the upstart Minnesota Wild in the Western Conference Finals thanks to the stellar goaltending of Jean-Sebastien Giguere, only allowing one goal during the entire series. Backing up Giguere were players such as Paul Kariya, Petr Sykora, Adam Oates, plus Rob Niedermayer, brother of then-Devils star defenseman Scott Niedermayer.
This series was memorable for two brothers on different teams competing for the same prize.
The 2003 Stanley Cup Finals pitted the second-seeded Eastern Conference champion New Jersey Devils against the seventh-seeded Western Conference champion Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. The Devils, who finished the season with 108 points, defeated the Mighty Ducks in 7 games to win the Stanley Cup. The series opened at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. In games one and two, Martin Brodeur kept the Ducks off the score board while the Devils players continually dominated the Ducks. The Devils shut out Anaheim 3-0 in both games. Down 2-0 after two games, the series shifted to the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim in Southern California. Game three was remembered for the clumsy mistake from Martin Brodeur when he accidentally dropped his stick when the puck came to him, the puck deflected off his fallen stick and into the net to give the Ducks a lucky break and a 2–1 lead. The Devils would later tie the game, but lose in overtime. Over the mistake with his stick, Brodeur later claimed, "It was just one of those once in a lifetime things."
Game four had no scoring throughout regulation and was a battle between goaltenders Brodeur and Giguere. But Anaheim again came out on top in overtime, winning 1–0 and tying the series 2-2. Game five, at the Meadowlands saw a continual battle for the first half of the game. With the game tied 3–3 in the second period, the Devils took the lead with a deflection goal by Jay Pandolfo that was initially waved off by referees due to a kicking motion dispute with the skates, but replays showed there was no distinct kicking motion from the skates, thus the goal counted. This would prove to deflate the Ducks for the rest of the game, as Jamie Langenbrunner scored two more goals for the Devils to give New Jersey a 6–3 win and a 3–2 series lead.
With New Jersey looking to clinch the series, game six in Anaheim saw the Mighty Ducks return the favor of game five to the Devils with complete dominance throughout the game. Quite possibly the most remembered moment of the entire series came when the Ducks were winning 3–1 in the second period. Ducks captain Paul Kariya didn't see Scott Stevens coming after he passed the puck and was leveled by the Devils captain in a hit similar to the check that knocked out Eric Lindros during the 2000 playoffs and caused Lindros to miss the next season. Kariya was lying motionless for a few minutes, and then was escorted to the locker room. Kariya unexpectedly returned to the bench minutes later. About eleven minutes after the hit, fired a slap shot that found the back of the net. This helped the Ducks win the game 5–2 and sent the series to a seventh game. Game seven on New Jersey home ice saw the Devils once more completely dominate the Ducks. The game winning goal was scored by Michael Rupp. Rupp became the first player in Stanley Cup history to have his first playoff goal be the Stanley Cup winning goal. Jeff Friesen dominated his former teammates with two goals. The 3–0 win gave the Devils their third Stanley Cup victory as Anaheim could not complete their Cinderella run. However, the Mighty Ducks wouldn't leave empty handed; for his stellar play throughout the playoffs and finals, Jean-Sébastien Giguère was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs. He became only the fifth player, and fourth goaltender, in NHL history to have won the trophy as a member of the losing team. Many were surprised by the Conn Smythe trophy being awarded to the losing team. Martin Brodeur had set modern-day records with his outstanding performance, including three shutouts in the Final, including one in the all-important Cup-clinching game seven. However, many experts felt that the Devils' votes were distributed among many players who had played well in the series.
This was only the third time in NHL history and the first time since 1965 that the home team won all the games in the final. [1]
| May 27 | New Jersey Devils | 3-0 | Anaheim Mighty Ducks | Continental Airlines Arena | Recap | |||
| No scoring | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Brylin, Gionta) Friesen 6 – 1:45 | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Elias, Gomez) Marshall 5 – 5:34 (White, Brodeur) Friesen 7 - en – 19:38 |
Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Martin Brodeur 16 saves / 16 shots | Goalie stats | Jean-Sébastien Giguère 27 saves / 29 shots | ||||||
| May 29 | New Jersey Devils | 3-0 | Anaheim Mighty Ducks | Continental Airlines Arena | Recap | |||
| No scoring | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Tverdovsky, Gomez) Elias 3 - pp – 4:42 (Tverdovsky, Elias) Gomez 2 – 12:11 |
Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Gionta, Niedermayer) Friesen 8 – 4:22 | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Martin Brodeur 16 saves / 16 shots | Goalie stats | Jean-Sébastien Giguère 22 saves / 25 shots | ||||||
| May 31 | Anaheim Mighty Ducks | 3-2 | OT | New Jersey Devils | Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim | Recap | ||
| No scoring | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Ozolinsh) Chouinard 1 – 3:39 (Giguère) Ozolinsh 2 – 14:47 |
Second period | 14:02 – Elias 4 (Langenbrunner, Rafalski) | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | 9:11 – Gomez 3 (Marshall, Elias) | ||||||
| (Oates) Salei 2 – 6:59 | First overtime period | No scoring | ||||||
| Jean-Sébastien Giguère 29 saves / 31 shots | Goalie stats | Martin Brodeur 30 saves / 33 shots | ||||||
| June 2 | Anaheim Mighty Ducks | 1-0 | OT | New Jersey Devils | Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim | Recap | ||
| No scoring | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Pahlsson, Ozolinsh) Thomas 3 – 0:39 | First overtime period | No scoring | ||||||
| Jean-Sébastien Giguère 26 saves / 26 shots | Goalie stats | Martin Brodeur 25 saves / 26 shots | ||||||
| June 5 | New Jersey Devils | 6-3 | Anaheim Mighty Ducks | Continental Airlines Arena | Recap | |||
| (Stevenson, Brylin) Rheaume 1 – 3:35 (Rafalski, Gomez) Elias 5 - pp – 7:45 |
First period | 0:42 – Sykora 3 (Oates) 12:50 – Rucchin 5 (Sykora, Kariya) |
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| (Pandolfo, Niedermayer) Gionta 1 – 3:12 (Gionta, Stevens) Pandolfo 5 – 9:02 |
Second period | 6:35 – Pahlsson 2 (Niedermayer, Carney) | ||||||
| (Rupp, Niedermayer) Langenbrunner 10 – 5:39 (Gionta) Langenbrunner 11 – 12:52 |
Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Martin Brodeur 20 saves / 23 shots | Goalie stats | Jean-Sébastien Giguère 31 saves / 37 shots | ||||||
| June 7 | Anaheim Mighty Ducks | 5-2 | New Jersey Devils | Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim | Recap | |||
| (Kariya, Sykora) Rucchin 6 – 4:26 (Leclerc, Niedermayer) Rucchin 7 – 13:42 (Kariya, Carney) Thomas 4 - pp – 15:59 |
First period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Sykora, Oates) Kariya 6 – 17:15 | Second period | 2:18 – Pandolfo 6 (Madden, Gionta) | ||||||
| (Chistov, Havelid) Sykora 4 - pp – 3:57 | Third period | 10:46 - pp – Marshall 6 (Rafalski, Elias) | ||||||
| Jean-Sébastien Giguère 26 saves / 28 shots | Goalie stats | Martin Brodeur 17 saves / 22 shots Corey Schwab 2 saves / 2 shots |
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| June 9 | New Jersey Devils | 3-0 | Anaheim Mighty Ducks | Continental Airlines Arena | Recap | |||
| No scoring | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Niedermayer, White) Rupp 1 – 2:22 (Rupp, Niedermayer) Friesen 9 – 12:18 |
Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Rupp, Stevens) Friesen 10 – 16:16 | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Martin Brodeur 24 saves / 24 shots | Goalie stats | Jean-Sébastien Giguère 22 saves / 25 shots | ||||||
| New Jersey won series 4–3 | |
Martin Brodeur, Sergei Brylin, Ken Daneyko, Scott Niedermayer, Scott Stevens (5 players), Bobby Carpenter Jr. (1 player-non player), Lou Lamoriello, Larry Robinson, Jacques Caron, Claude Carrier, David Conte, Milt Fisher, Dan Labraaten, Marcel Provonost, Mike Vasalani, Peter McMullen (left cup in 2003) (10 Non-players).
| Preceded by Detroit Red Wings 2002 |
New Jersey Devils Stanley Cup Champions 2003 |
Succeeded by Tampa Bay Lightning 2004 |
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