Devils’ Zach Parise ends his goal-scoring drought in Game 5 win

Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerDevils center Adam Henrique (14) and Jarret Stoll of the Kings wind up in the crease near goalie Jonathan quick.

Devils captain Zach Parise ended his goal-scoring drought in the Stanley Cup finals when he scored his first goal against the Kings and first in six games going back to the Eastern Conference finals. But he got help from Kings goalie Jonathan quick, who shot the puck off the end boards to Parise at the right post. Parise beat Drew Doughty to the puck and scored inside the post.

“I made a not-so-great pass across the ice. I wasn’t looking,” Parise explained. “I just saw quick go out of the net. Just went on the normal forecheck route that I’ve gone on a thousand times this year. he just happened to misplay it and put it on my stick. You got to get lucky sometimes.”

Parise spoke about scoring his first goal in the finals. “It’s always nice to contribute. But, again, I still think that our line was playing fine,” he said. “We were getting a lot of great chances. it wasn’t going in for us. Tonight we get lucky, and that’s the difference.

“But, yeah, it feels good to contribute. for us to get the first goal, that’s always big. I think every team plays better when they’ve got the lead. You can get the crowd going a little bit, get them excited. We were able to do that.”

Defenseman Andy Greene spoke of the 2-1 victory that kept the Devils alive in the series.

“It’s huge,” Greene said. “It gives us another day. All we can do is keep fighting. It’s exciting.”

Can they pull off something historic?

“We’ll find out,” Greene told me. “We haven’t done anything or won anything yet. Win Game 6 and we’ll talk.”

Rich Chere: rchere@starledger.com; twitter.com/Ledger_NJDevils

Devils’ Zach Parise ends his goal-scoring drought in Game 5 win