He stopped 35 shots Thursday night, holding Florida to one goal for the third consecutive game and ending the Devils' first-round playoffs woes with a 4-1 victory over the Panthers.

Sergei Nemchinov scored twice in the final four minutes to seal New Jersey's sweep in the best-of-7 series.

After the game, which advanced the Devils to the second round for the first time since 1997, Brodeur's teammates surrounded him near the goal. They pounded him atop his mask and pads, showing their appreciation.

"That's the Marty we've seen in the past," center Bobby Holik said. "What else do I say? What do I say? You saw it, I saw it. He was awesome."

The Panthers, 1-12 in their last 13 playoff games, continued to struggle offensively in Game 4 despite getting their most scoring opportunities of the series.

They just couldn't find a way to get the puck under, over, around or through Brodeur.

"Brodeur was the best player on the ice tonight," Panthers coach Terry Murray said. "That is the reason they won. We failed to score throughout the series."

Florida scored first for the third consecutive game, snapping an 0-for-10 drought on the power play with a goal in the first period. But also for the third consecutive game, it would be the Panthers' lone score.

Pavel Bure beat Brodeur with a slap shot from just outside the left circle to give Florida a 1-0 lead at 5:19. Bure slipped the shot under the sliding Ken Daneyko and between Brodeur and the right post.

It was Bure's first goal of the playoffs. The Russian Rocket led the league with 58 goals during the season, but the Devils, primarily using Scott Stevens to shadow Bure, limited his shots and open skating space.

"Scott Stevens did a great job on Pavel, and Marty Brodeur did the rest," Panthers left wing Ray Whitney said. "We certainly would need more than one goal to beat the New Jersey Devils."

Mike Vernon kept the Panthers ahead in the opening period, stopping 17 shots, including one-on-one saves against Jason Arnott and Claude Lemieux.

New Jersey scored twice in the second, tying the game at 4:26 and taking a 2-1 lead at 15:02.

Patrik Elias tied it, beating Vernon high on a precise centering pass from Jason Arnott.

The Panthers had plenty of chances to regain the lead, getting 14 shots in the second period, but again struggled against the Devils' smothering defense and Brodeur.

"They had a lot of chances in the second period. I was really lucky out there," Brodeur said.

Scott Niedermayer (27) celebrates with teammates after putting the Devils ahead for good.(AP)

New Jersey took the lead when Scott Niedermayer scored his second goal since returning from a 10-game suspension for hitting Florida's Peter Worrell over the head with his stick March 19.

Niedermayer's wrist shot floated past Vernon.

Nemchinov put the Devils up 3-1 with 3:48 to play and added his second goal of the night with 1:57 remaining.

But the overwhelming sentiment of the Devils was that the series sweep was just the beginning.

"None of us are going to be satisfied with this," Holik said. "This team has more to accomplish."

The Devils lost in the first round of the playoffs as the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed the last two seasons. Ottawa beat them 4-2 in 1998 and Pittsburgh beat them 4-3 last year.

"It's special. It's been real tough the last few years," Daneyko said. "I don't know if we got the monkey off our backs. We're still not where we want to be. It's only one round, so we want to keep it in perspective. We have much bigger plans along the way."