Devils Sweep Panthers

Florida
Panthers

"It's special. It's been real tough the last few years," Devils Ken Daneyko said. "I don't know if we got the monkey off our backs. We're still not where we want to be. It's only one round, so we want to keep it in perspective. We have much bigger plans along the way."

New Jersey rendered Florida's Pavel Bure to an non-factor in the series by shadowing him tightly and limiting his skating space. Bure scored Florida's only goal, his first goal in the playoffs after scoring 58 in the regular season.

"It's nice to get that first series out of the way," Devils coach Larry Robinson said. "This is the game that probably scared me the most of all because the fourth one is the hardest to win and in each game you risk injury."

The Panthers have lost 12 of their last 13 playoff games. Florida had hard time scoring throughout the series managing only three goals in the last three games.

"I thought we played with a lot of passion and a lot of hard work and intensity," Panthers coach Terry Murray said. "There was a lot of good offensive play. It certainly wasn't a 4-1 game when you broke it down. Brodeur was the best player on the ice tonight. That's why they won."

"Scott Stevens did a great job on Pavel, and Marty Brodeur did the rest," Panthers left wing Ray Whitney said. "We certainly would need more than one goal to beat the New Jersey Devils."