Devils Finish Leafs
Patrik Elias scored twice and Scott Stevens had a goal and an assist as the New Jersey Devils advanced to the Eastern Conference finals with a 5-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 7 of their second-round series.
"We have a lot of pride playing for this organization," Elias said. "We never give up. It looks like every time we have our backs to the wall we pick our game up and play our best games."
The Devils wanted to win for injured teammate Scott Niedermayer, who was a victim of Toronto goon Tie Domi's vicious elbow to the head in Game 4.
"Everybody was thinking of Nieder," fellow Devils defenseman Colin White said. "We wanted to give Nieder a chance to play again, and I think we may have just done that."
The Leafs played a hard-fought series, but faced a disappointment at the very end.
"You can never be satisfied in losing a series, especially in a series we truly felt we could have won," said Steve Thomas. "We could have won the series in five or four, but it went seven and we lost a big one at the end."
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