Stanley Cup Final 2012: Oldest and Youngest N.J. Devils Salvage Their Season

Their alternate captain and longest-tenured skater gave them their first lead of the series. Their Hall of Fame-caliber goaltender would not blink beyond the limit after temporarily spilling that lead.

And then their rookie sensation, a budding specialist in putting playoff opponents away, this time prevented the Los Angeles Kings from locking up his own club’s coffin by permanently restoring the lead.

With that, the New Jersey Devils scored as many goals in Wednesday night’s third period as they had in the preceding 11-plus stanzas and claimed a 3-1 triumph in Game 4 of the 2012 Stanley Cup Final. Their deficit in the series is now an identical 3-1.

Between the regular season and postseason, Adam Henrique has now played 97 games (going on 98) with the Devils, the fewest among the team’s active players. Patrik Elias, barely the second-eldest New Jersey skater behind Bryce Salvador, will soon have played 1,202 meaningful NHL games, all with the Devils.

On the most desperate night to date in their first season as teammates, experiential opposites attracted and collaborated to spell the difference.

One party barely knew the situation any better, while the other, already a two-time cup champion and four-time finalist, had ample historical reference points to drive him. It all worked to the same basic effect as Elias and Henrique ensured that goaltender Martin Brodeur would win at least one Stanley Cup staring contest with Jonathan Quick.

And regardless of what happens in the resultant Game 5 back at the Prudential Center this Saturday, Brodeur is guaranteed at least a .500 record when facing elimination from the NHL playoffs. He improved to a lifetime mark of 13-12 in that scenario on Wednesday, repelling all but one of 22 Los Angeles shots.

The 40-year-old Brodeur, the only active Devil with more career action in a New Jersey uniform than Elias, was still anything but infallible, as he has been every night in recent weeks.

Brodeur was charged with three giveaways on the night, none more egregious than the one he lent to Dustin Brown as the Kings captain came barreling down Broadway when the game was still young and scoreless.

But considering the timing of L.A.’s equalizer, if it had to happen to Peter DeBoer’s pupils, there may have been no netminder more ideal to let it in than the three-time champion Brodeur. He and his mates could have easily had their confidence irrecoverably zapped when Drew Doughty slugged home a power-play conversion.

After all, it was precisely one minute of playing time after Elias’ icebreaker. It was a mere six seconds after the gritty David Clarkson sat down for an iffy boarding infraction. And it reignited the hostile Staples Center masses with only 11:04 to spare in regulation.

Yet in response, the Devils carried on much as they had for the first 40-plus minutes of the night. The skaters employed a stingy defensive laser-beam a la their cup-winning ancestors, and the ageless Brodeur never succumbed to frostbite even after protracted periods of inactivity on his property.

Brown would be the next King to test Brodeur a good five minutes and 24 seconds after Doughty’s equalizer. In another 69 ticks, none other than Clarkson set up Adam Henrique to stroll in and restore the lead to 2-1.

Henrique, an overtime scorer in two series-clinching games versus the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers, entered Wednesday’s action with no playoff goals outside of those two potential clinchers. And the equally stingy Kings blue line had kept him shotless well into the final phases of the third period.

But the rookie found a new specialty in a timely manner, breaking a raw tie with 4:31 left in regulation to avert sudden death altogether.

And, for at least 72 more hours, averting defeat in the championship.