=== Mighty Ducks of Anaheim Team Report - May 28th ===

(My Sportsbook) - The Devils may have found a chink in Jean-Sebastien Giguere's armor, unleashing a three-goal barrage on the Mighty Ducks to take a 3-0 victory in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Tuesday night at the Meadowlands.

Giguere made 27 saves in a losing effort for Anaheim, which dropped its seventh consecutive contest in New Jersey and lost the series opener for the first time in four tries this postseason. The Ducks fell to 6-2 on the road in these playoffs and have lost 10 of their last 11 games against the Devils overall. Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is scheduled for Thursday again at Continental Airlines Arena.

New Jersey outshot the Ducks 15-4 in the second period and 30-16 for the game. Anaheim tried to revamp lines to boost the offense, putting Paul Kariya, Petr Sykora and Adam Oates together, but it hardly paid off. The trio combined for just three shots in the contest, including zero from Oates, who had registered two goals and two assists in his last two tilts. Rob Niedermayer also saw a three-game point streak come to an end.

Giguere is coming off a four-game sweep against the Minnesota Wild in the conference finals where he helped set an NHL record by allowing just one score, the fewest ever in a best-of-seven set. He fell to 12-3 in his debut postseason. Giguere is first among goaltenders in goals-against average (1.27) and save percentage (.958), while trailing New Jersey's Martin Brodeur by one in both victories and shutouts. Giguere's save percentage ranks second all- time for a single playoff year thus far, trailing only the .963 mark set by Philadelphia's Bernie Parent in 1968.

Anaheim, in its third postseason appearance, is in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in franchise history. The Ducks became the first team in NHL history to knock off the top two conference seeds in the first two rounds of the playoffs by disposing of the Dallas Stars in six games in the conference semis, after sweeping the defending Cup champion Detroit Red Wings in the opening round.

Anaheim was 0-for-2 on the power play last night and has scored on the man- advantage just six times in 54 chances (11.1 percent) in the playoffs. However, the Ducks' penalty killing unit shut down New Jersey on its only opportunity and has allowed just six on 50 tries (88.0 kill percentage) overall.

The Devils and the Mighty Ducks are meeting in the playoffs for the first time in league history. New Jersey holds a 12-5 edge all-time in the regular season series, and took both meetings in 2003-03.

Oates and Mike Leclerc are tied for the club lead with 10 points apiece. Kariya, Niedermayer, and Sykora are all next at eight points. Kariya is the top goal scorer with five, while Leclerc has logged a team-high eight assists.

Head coach Mike Babcock is the first rookie coach to reach the Stanley Cup Finals since Florida's Doug MacLean accomplished the feat with the Florida Panthers in 1996.