Panthers Take 3-2 Lead, Beat Devils 3-0 After spending most of the previous two games watching from the bench, Florida's Jose Theodore sent the New Jersey Devils to the brink of elimination. Theodore made 30 saves for his second postseason shutout, Kris Versteeg scored a goal and used a burst of speed to set up another, and the Panthers moved a win away from their first series triumph in 16 years with a 3-0 victory over the Devils on Saturday night. Scottie Upshall and Tomas Kopecky also scored for Florida, which leads the Eastern Conference first-round series 3-2. The Panthers' last series victory came in the 1996 East finals, and they'll have two chances to snap that drought. "A huge win, obviously," Theodore said. I keep saying this: The next game is always the biggest in the playoffs. Martin Brodeur made 30 saves for New Jersey, which hosts a win-or-else Game 6 on Tuesday night. If necessary, Game 7 is at Florida on Thursday night. "They did a lot of things better than we did tonight," Devils coach Pete DeBoer said. It was a good lesson for us. The fourth game is always the toughest to win and we're going to make it as tough as possible. New Jersey forward Ilya Kovalchuk said after Game 4 that he thought Saturday's outcome would decide the series. And now? Florida Panthers' Brian Campbell (51) celebrates with Kris Versteeg (32) after Versteeg scored the first goal of the game during the second period of Game 5 in a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoff hockey series in Sunrise, Fla., Saturday, April 21, 2012, against the New Jersey Devils. "Nobody said it was going to be easy," Kovalchuk said. Here's one that few hockey fans might have expected a few weeks ago: Of the East's top three seeds, the Panthers are in the best position. The top-seeded New York Rangers trail their series with Ottawa 3-2. The reigning Stanley Cup champion and No. 2 seed Boston Bruins trail Washington 3-2. The Panthers? One win from the second round. Go figure. "There's a lot of wins left to get," Panthers defenseman Brian Campbell said. Clinging to a one-goal lead for more than half the game, Florida had plenty of chances for the insurance score. It came with 6:43 left - and was earned. With the sellout crowd already roaring as Upshall and Shawn Matthias battled to fight the puck up the boards and eventually clear it into the New Jersey zone, Brodeur skated around his net to make a play. On a forecheck, Versteeg beat Brodeur to the puck, sending it in front for Upshall, who had empty net to shoot at and give Florida a 2-0 lead. "I saw the puck kind of slow-rolling," Versteeg said. I don't know if he kind of double-guessed himself whether he could get it or not. But obviously, it was a great finish by Uppy. From there, red towels waved, people stomping and clapping in unison, a scene that Panthers fans haven't enjoyed often over the past decade. Theodore gave them plenty to celebrate. He shut the door, and when Brodeur got to the bench with 2:14 left and the Devils down by two, Theodore never got rattled, either. New Jersey had a 6-on-4 when Erik Gudbranson was called for roughing with 2:08 left, but never solved Theodore. "We didn't challenge him enough," Devils forward Zach Parise said. He got real lucky on a lot of them. The Devils had the best penalty-killing percentage in the NHL's modern era this season, thwarting power plays 89.6 percent of the time. But in the series, Florida has thrived when it has the extra skater on the ice. And the trend continued.