The New Jersey Devils have found a way to tame the great Henrik Lundqvist, and that has oddsmakers looking at them entirely different now.
The Devils came up big in Game 5, scoring five goals on the Vezina Trophy favorite, and now have a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals with just one more win standing between them and their first trip to the Stanley Cup finals in almost a decade.
Oddsmakers have them now favored to beat the New York Rangers.
As for the entire thing? They are now a 2/1 favorite to win the NHL’s biggest prize, according to Bovada’s 2013 Stanley Cup Futures Odds.
In winning Game 5, New Jersey showed its mettle by fending off a furious rally by the Rangers late in the game. It jumped out to an early 3-0 before New York stormed back with three unanswered goals.
Instead of wilting, they punched a fourth in the net with just over four minutes left, then squeezed another in an empty net.
“It just hurts, the way it ends, a late goal there,” Lundqvist told Yahoo! Sports. “We worked so hard to get back in this game. We did so many good things. So, uh …
“We just have to remember that for the next one, how many good things we actually did tonight, and hopefully we can get two straight here.”
Lundqvist sounded defeated, slain after being one of the best goaltenders of the playoffs so far. He hadn’t surrendered more than three goals in any game this postseason before Wednesday night. That success will be critical for the Devils if they want to contend with the Los Angeles Kings, who dominated the Phoenix Coyotes with strong net minding.
It was a little unsettling that New York was able to rally at all, but head coach 
Peter DeBoer attributed that more to the early dominance that caused the Devils to relax.
“When you get that type of lead, your mindset changes just a little bit, and that’s all it takes – a fraction,” DeBoer said. “You’re a step slow on the forecheck. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be going here.’ And then you’re in between. And then you get caught. So I think that’s what happened. It was just a slight change of mindset.”
Perhaps that’s just the reality check New Jersey needs in the final.