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Sunday, May 20, 2001

By Chuck Finder, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

One-hundred and four Stanley Cup playoff games have been waged under the silver retractable lid now known as Mellon Arena.

	In the past two games, the Penguins have not got a puck past Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, who has stopped all 41 shots he has faced. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette)

In the first 102, the Penguins were shut out twice.

In the past two, the Penguins were shut out twice.

You bet they're spooked by these Devils.

Captain Jaromir Jagr opined, "We just got smoked," adding nothing in Czech about a bad cigar, as Mike Lange might announce it.

Owner-center Mario Lemieux dropped a rarely heard f-word -- frustration.

Winger Kevin Stevens reached into the thesaurus for another.

"We're a little bit flabbergasted at what's going on," Stevens said yesterday, after a 5-0 Game 4 loss that gave defending champion New Jersey a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference final. "It's been a long time since I've seen a stifling team like that."

"We've got nothing going on so far," Martin Straka said. "And, I mean, they're getting better every game. Three-nothing [as in Thursday's Game 3]. Five-nothing. We have to find a way."

That is the part that leaves the Penguins with blank stares, blank faces, blank answers. Thursday night, they went 12 and later 14 minutes without a shot. Yesterday, they watched as the Devils built large leads in the shots category: 9-0, 16-5, 25-10 and finally 30-21. Four of five times, the Penguins' power play was held without a shot. At every turn, they were stymied.

Jagr rejoined Lemieux as a linemate, and they combined for three shots, with Lemieux twice unable to get a stick on bouncing passes near the goal. Robert Lang and Darius Kasparaitis rejoined the team after missing Game 3 with injuries, and still it did nothing more than provide an early adrenaline rush (before Lang left with 31/2 minutes left in the first period, without returning because of strained back muscles). Lines stayed relatively intact, shifts got shortened, dumping and carrying the puck were attempted.

Nothing worked.

"Nothing's really clicking right now," Stevens said. "We need a bounce. We had a couple of pucks roll by sticks. We had a couple bounce the other way."

"There's nothing positive there," Jagr said of the past two shutouts -- an April 8, 1972 loss to Bobby Hull and the Chicago Blackhawks and that infamous April 26, 1975 loss to Ed Westfall and the New York Islanders in a series that sent the franchise into its first bankruptcy.

Lemieux, who helped to rescue it from the second bankruptcy, was bereft of ideas. He sat at his locker afterward, head down, left with nothing but a shirt, socks anda question: What to do? He soon made his way through a thicket of microphones and cameras and notepads, prompting him to respond to the first question: "You ever play against the trap? Pretty tough. Just like this here -- I can't get through."

Later, when a broadcaster even sounded frustrated, saying that there must be some way to counter these Devils, Lemieux responded with a smirk: "What is it?"

"It's frustrating to play against a great team," Lemieux said.. "There's just no room. The more you skate, the more you fall into the trap. From what I've seen, they're amazing."

Added Alexei Kovalev, "It's like playing against a wall."

One more brick of a shutout loss like these past two, and the Penguins' season will end Tuesday in New Jersey.