Red Wings 5
Devils 2
DETROIT – The Joe Louis Jinx kayoed the Devils again. Their solace is they don’t come back next season.
There wasn’t enough magic in John MacLean behind the bench, nor enough saves in Scott Clemmensen’s glove, to end the Devils’ nine-year drought here. Leading twice, the Devils were overrun by the Red Wings in the second half of last night’s 5-2 loss.
“The first five minutes,” was John Madden’s evaluation of Devils’ competence. “Then it seemed like rapid fire for the next 15 (outshot 15-2). We got out of the first still tied 1-1 and at one point in the second we were actually leading again.”
Then this building fell on them – again.
“They score in bunches. It was still right there, but then they scored three (in 6:24),” Clemmensen said.
The Devils’ futility here now stretches from Jacques Lemaire, Robbie Ftorek, Larry Robinson, (Kevin Constantine escaped), Pat Burns to fill-in MacLean. They won here twice in the 1995 Finals, and on Nov. 6, 1996. Since then, they’ve made seven visits, losing all.
“It’s a home rink, one of the best in the league, a building where our record doesn’t help our club,” Scott Gomez said.
The loss probably was the end of MacLean’s emergency service. Robinson “should be OK,” GM Lou Lamoriello said, to return behind the bench tonight when the Devils play host to Calgary. Robinson remained in New Jersey last night, nursing the throat infection that provided MacLean (1-1) his stint as fill-in.
Viktor Kozlov gave the Devils the lead 4:04 into play, rebounding Sean Brown’s right-point shot. Brendan Shanahan answered 8:56 later for Detroit, catching Clemmensen off his angle for the long-side, left-circle wrister.
Rookie Zach Parise broke his eight-game goal drought to put the Devils back in front at 8:34 of the second, rebounding Vladimir Malakhov’s point shot. But Shanahan erased that lead again with a power play goal at 11:57, this time beating Clemmensen from the right circle. That goal was Shanahan’s 575th career, the former Devil having passed Mike Bossy (573) in the first for 15th place all-time.
The Red Wings took over with a pair 2:39 apart before the second was done. Tomas Holmstrom caught the Devils deep, scoring unassisted on a 2-on-1, and Jason Williams made it 4-2 at 18:21 on another right-circle shot. Steve Yzerman added his fourth on a break at 10:49 of the third.
“Too many turnovers. Eventually, we paid for it,” MacLean said.
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A Toys for Tots collection will be held Friday at the Meadowlands (vs. Colorado) . . . Clemmensen made his first appearance since Nov. 8. He is winless in his past five (0-3-2) starts . . . The Red Wings snapped a two-game losing streak. They are 4-6-1 in 11 . . . Dan McGillis sat out his second straight game as a healthy scratch . . . The Devils are 4-2 in their past six. They have not scored on the power play for four-plus games, 0-for-25 . . . Last night was to have been the Red Wings’ 1,000th regular-season game at Joe Louis, except for the tilt that was halted last month when Jiri Fischer suffered a seizure on the bench.
mark.everson@nypost.com
