Goaltending is supposed to be the great advantage, or the great equalizer. This time, the shooters will have to be the difference.

The Devils will find out how it feels to face Martin Brodeur when they shoot pucks at Tampa Bay’s Nikolai Khabibulin. The Devils don’t score much to begin with, and they’ll be pressed to maintain that pace.

Tampa Bay is fresh from its first playoff series victory. The Lightning might be satisfied, they might be hungry for more. Either way, it’s unlikely to matter, because the Devils will smother their offense.

It could boil down to power plays, which would be a Devils disadvantage. But it won’t.

FORWARDS

John Madden can be expected to handle Vincent Lecavalier; Martin St. Louis could be the player the Devils watch most. Dave Andreychuk will annoy his former teammates in front, and Fred Modin used to give the Devils trouble. Joe Nieuwendyk, Jamie Langenbrunner and Jeff Friesen will have to provide the Devils’ scoring. Pat Burns might be tempted to move up Patrik Elias.

EDGE: DEVILS

DEFENSE

Scott Stevens remains the skating focus of this series, the hub of Devils strategy. Scott Niedermayer is the foiler, Brian Rafalski the turn-around starter, Colin White the other rock of the top four. The Lightning doesn’t have a backliner who could crack that group, but Dan Boyle, Pavel Kubina, Cory Sarich and Stan Neckar are solid.

EDGE: DEVILS

GOALTENDING

On his best day, Khabibulin can match Brodeur in puck-stopping, but he has nothing on him in puck-playing. Brodeur’s stick-handling forces teams to alter their basic strategy. Khabibulin, even at his best, won’t be more valuable than Brodeur.

EDGE: DEVILS

SPECIAL TEAMS

The Devils scored three power-play goals in five games against Boston; Tampa Bay converted four of six advantages against Washington. The Lightning allowed five PPGs, scoring one short-hander; the Devils allowed three disadvantage goals.

EDGE: EVEN

COACHING

Burns showed his stuff early in the Boston series, and although he ruffled feathers by ending Ken Daneyko’s streak of playing all 165 Devils playoff games, he now has flexibility there with less controversy. John Tortorella managed to repair his relationship with Lecavalier, but he has one series of playoff experience behind him.

EDGE: DEVILS

PREDICTION

St. Louis will have to go wild for the Lightning to last long, and Stevens is unlikely to allow that. The Devils are too deep and too experienced for the Lightning, whose quick complaints about getting no respect will grow silent even quicker.

DEVILS IN FIVE