But with all the day dreaming and soul searching his infamous 10-game, 26-day suspension provided him, he probably never figured he would score what proved to be a vital short-handed equalizer in his first game back. Especially not against the team with which this mess all started.

That would be asking for a little too much.

Niedermayer never made any bones about the fact that he was dead wrong when he smacked rugged Florida Panthers' left wing Peter Worrell over the head with his stick in the late stages of a Devils romp on March 19.

He didn't care much about making a triumphant return in Game 2 of the Devils' Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with the Panthers Sunday night. All he wanted to do was play.

He's a hockey player and watching the Devils open the playoffs without him Thursday was misery. The only thing that made it bearable was the result, a 4-3 New Jersey victory.

Sunday was more like it for Niedermayer, who was finally granted his parole for a blatant, albeit instinctive bash of Worrell all those weeks ago.

Not only did the Devils beat the Panthers again to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series, but Niedermayer put home the biggest and most improbable goal of 2-1 triumph.

Who writes these scripts anyway?

Not Niedermayer, you can be certain of that.

"There were a few little different thoughts in my head," Niedermayer said. "The first game back being a playoff game, I was just trying to go out there and not make any mistakes. "

Make no mistake about it. Devils coach Larry Robinson had no hesitation about throwing his feisty veteran defenseman right back in to the fire.

Trailing 1-0 at the outset of the second period, the Devils looked to be in trouble as the Panthers were skating with a five-on-three advantage.

One of New Jersey's three was Niedermayer, a man who was supposedly just trying to get his skates back beneath him.

But following a seemingly harmless face-off down at the Devils' end, New Jersey's Scott Stevens tracked down the puck along the boards and found a streaking John Madden, who had only Panthers goalie Mike Vernon between him and the net.

It would have been easy for Niedermayer to play it safe and stay in his own end. Nobody would have complained.

However, just as instinct took over on his ill-fated whack of Worrell, it took over in this instance as he went streaking down the ice trailing Madden.

He gave his teammate a little scream. It would be easy to forget about Niedermayer given the amount of time he's missed.

"I was just yelling to let him know I was there," Niedermayer said. "I was coming from behind him."

But instead of dishing it back to Niedermayer, Madden took a blast. Vernon left a sloppy rebound that looked like a dribbling hockey puck as it wobbled towards Niedermayer's stick.

Even for a man who has been out as long as Niedermayer, the shot felt like a layup as he blasted it out of the air and past Vernon to tie it at 1-1 at the 56-second mark of the second period.

"It was a huge goal," Robinson said. "I don't even think he's at his best probably right now. He's a little rusty. First game in a long time. I'm expecting he'll be even more dominant than he was tonight."

"It was bouncing a little bit," Niedermayer said of the gift-like rebound. "I tried my best to get my stick on it, get it towards the net. Maybe it was a little luck."

Maybe he had it coming to him. No, Niedermayer is no saint. But neither is Worrell, one of the most physical players in the league.

If it had been Niedermayer who planted the elbow back on March 19 instead of Worrell, maybe the whole incident would have been reversed and Worrell would have been the one returning to duty Sunday.

Unfortunately, nasty stick work is often a dark sidelight to this grueling game. And Niedermayer wasn't exactly Marty McSorley in this case anyway.

New Jersey's Scott Niedermayer (right) goes for a steal against younger brother Rob of the Panthers.(AP)

"There was a lot of attention obviously and I wasn't real proud of my actions and what I did," said Niedermayer, who has been a standup guy all the way. "It was a tough thing to go through. I didn't think to do it. I just did it. Right after I did it, I knew I was wrong. "

So Sunday, he got back in to the fray. Yes, he had inconsequential contact with his old buddy Worrell a few times.

"I gave him a couple of hits and we were pushing each other around a little bit and nothing got carried away," Niedermayer said. "I have to give him credit for that."

No need. Worrell didn't seem too offended. Matter of fact, he didn't even notice.

"To be honest, I didn't even know he hit me," Worrell said. "I was just playing. I wasn't looking at who it was, just trying to make my hits. It's a hockey game. It's the playoffs. It's not time to dwell on that. These games are too important to worry about something that happened in the past."

"We're nowhere right now," said Niedermayer, one of the core veterans remaining from the Devils' Cup in 1995. "No one has won the series yet. We can play a lot better."

With Niedermayer back on the ice, the Devils can't help but play better.

"He's a big special teams guy and scored a huge goal," credited Stevens, who potted the game-winner at 3:42 of the third period. "Just having him back brings confidence back to our team. We have a lot of young players and he's a veteran guy and he's a big-game player for us. We need him to play. He showed it tonight."