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MONTREAL – Their greatest season complete, the Devils now try to make it count.

They’ll begin defending their Stanley Cup Thursday, this time as Eastern Conference champions after capturing their fourth such title in five years last night.

“After winning the Stanley Cup, this shows we’re legit, that we deserved the Cup. We had a hell of a year, and that’s hard to do as defending champs,” Scott Stevens said after the Devils blanked the Canadiens 2-0 in the season finale here.

Their first-round foe won’t be determined until this afternoon. If Carolina beats Pittsburgh, the Devils open the playoffs against Toronto; otherwise, they will face the Hurricanes.

In either case, they’ll be battling the Top Seed Jinx. Each time they’ve finished first, they’ve finished early. The two times they won the Cup, they came from below, including their fourth-seed last year.

On the other hand, winning as conference champs would add even more luster to their reputation. They’ll try to join the dynastic Canadiens, Islanders and Oilers as the only teams to win three Stanley Cups since expansion, and they’ll have to do it by overcoming the hex.

The Devils wound up the season by tying the NHL record with their 10th straight road victory, finishing the schedule by winning 19 of their final 21 games.

Their season is a litany of greatness, and as Stevens said, they’ll need a record book the size of a phone book.

Among their accomplishments, the Devils:

Matched the NHL record of 10 straight road victories.

Tied the team record of 48 victories in a season.

Captured their fourth conference title in five years.

Led the league in goals, and allowed the fewest goals in the division.

Boasted the greatest goal differential in the league.

Set a team record for fewest road losses in a season (8), snapping team mark of 10, set in 1998-99.

Set the team record of 111 points in a season, cleanly breaking the 1997-98 mark of 107, which didn’t include points for three overtime losses.

Topped 100 points for fifth straight season, a streak surpassed only by the eight of the 1975-82 Canadiens and the six of the 1982-87 Oilers.

Won a team-record 13 straight, four short of the NHL record.

Went 33-9-7-3 after Scott Niedermayer and Jason Arnott signed in Novmember.

Individually, this season was a bonanza of greatness:

Patrik Elias set the team record with 96 points in a season, breaking 1987-88 mark of 94 held by Kirk Muller.

Martin Brodeur posted his third 40-victory season, joining Terry Sawchuk and Jacques Plante as the only goalies to have three 40-win campaigns.

Brodeur won 30 for sixth straight season, joining only Tony Esposito, Plante and Patrick Roy (current).

For the first time, the Devils had two 40-goal scorers (Alexander Mogilny and Elias), after not having one since Claude Lemieux in 1991-92.

They boasted three 30-goal scorers for third time in team history, one short of 1987-88 record, and first time since 1992-93.

John Madden (23-15-38), Petr Sykora (35-46-81), Sergei Brylin (23-29-52), Elias (40-56-96) and Brian Rafalski (9-43-52) each had career bests in goals, assists and points.

Randy McKay and Madden became the first same-team pair since 1928 to each score four goals in a 9-0 rout in Pitt Oct. 28. That score matched the team record margin of victory as well as most goals in a game.

They showed no signs of a let-up last night, continuing to steamroll the schedule until there was none left. Brodeur notched his ninth shutout of the season and 51st career, tied with Rogie Vachon and Davey Kerr for 19th place all-time. It was also his fourth career blanking of Montreal, and second this season, both here.

Scott Niedermayer’s goal in the first and Brylin’s score in the second gave the Devils enough to hand the Canadiens their franchise-worst 46th loss of the season, 40 coming in regulation.

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Devils went 2-1-1 vs. Carolina this season, the 3-2 loss Feb. 23 being their last road defeat of season. Jersey was 1-1-1 vs Toronto, blanking Leafs in Toronto 2-0 Feb. 19 in last meeting . . . Montreal missed playoffs for third straight year for the first time since 1920-22 . . . Alexander Mogilny returned after sitting Friday’s victory over Bruins with groin pull . . . Habs held a breakaway contest between periods with Yvan Cournoyer beating Guy Lafleur and Henri Richard 1-0-0 in three tries each against Richard Sevigny.