EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. ? New Jersey Devils rookie Mike Rupp turned out to be one of the unlikeliest Game 7 heroes ever.

Rupp scored the game’s first goal and set up two by Jeff Friesen in leading the Devils to a 3-0 victory over the Anaheim Mighty Ducks Monday night and their second Stanley Cup in four years.

“Throughout the whole playoffs, it’s been someone else all the time,” Rupp said after living out every hockey player’s dream of being the hero of Game 7. “Guys were just stepping up to the plate. When you follow any sport, that’s what championship teams do.”

The guy who stepped up to the plate for the Devils was a young man from Cleveland, who spent the first half of the season languishing in the minor leagues and the first three rounds of the playoffs sitting on the bench.

“Mike Rupp explains the type of a team we are,” Friesen said. “This guy was skating on his own in the first couple of rounds, and all of a sudden he comes in and scores the game-winning goal in the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals. That incredible.”

The goal was Rupp’s first in his playoff career. The assists were his second and third. The postseason game was his fourth. The Cup was his first.

Rupp had talked to his mother, Debbie Coyle, and father, Lowell Rupp, earlier in the playoffs and said he didn’t want his name on the Stanley Cup if he didn’t contribute to winning it.

“I think I would have taken my name on the Cup anyway,” Rupp said. “I wanted to contribute, just play one game. It didn’t have to be on the score sheet. That was just a bonus.”

Rupp got his chance when an injury to center Joe Nieuwendyk created an opening in the lineup for the finals. Devils coach Pat Burns made the surprise move in Game 4, going with Rupp, who played 26 games after being called up from Albany of the AHL Jan. 13.