EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. ? The second period doomed the Anaheim Mighty Ducks again.

For the second straight game in the Stanley Cup finals, the Ducks were even with the New Jersey Devils after 20 minutes, only to see that change soon after the first intermission. Anaheim gave up two goals in the period Thursday and only mustered two shots of its own.

It added up to a second straight 3-0 loss, and a 2-0 deficit in the best-of-seven series. The Ducks haven’t scored in two games and have only 32 shots, 16 in each defeat.

“We played very well defensively against the other teams and frustrated the other teams, and now New Jersey is doing it to us,” said captain Paul Kariya, who has just one shot in the series — in Game 1.

The last time a team was shut out in the first two games of the finals was in 1945 when Toronto did it to Detroit.

The Ducks were outshot 15-4 in the middle period of Game 1 and were behind 1-0 heading into the third period. Anaheim’s defense improved in this one, limiting the Devils to six shots. Still, New Jersey scored on two of them.

“We were better in the first period,” Kariya said, “better certainly than the first game. Second period, they got a power-play goal. We just didn’t manage the puck well and play with our heads. We’re just making poor plays out there.”

The only Ducks’ pucks that got through to Devils goalie Martin Brodeur in the second period Thursday came off the sticks of Rob Niedermayer and Steve Rucchin.

“They’re playing New Jersey hockey, you’ve got to give them some credit,” center Adam Oates said. “It’s nothing we didn’t expect. We know they’re a very good a defensive team, and obviously Marty’s good back there.”

New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur clears the puck from the corner ahead of Anaheim's Steve Rucchin and Grant Marshall. The Devils beat the Mighty Ducks, 3-0, Thursday in East Rutherford, N.J.

Anaheim didn’t have any shots until 10:47 elapsed in the second. The Ducks were already behind 1-0 when Niedermayer took a drive from the left side that wasn’t much of a challenge for Brodeur.

“We haven’t tested him at all,” forward Steve Thomas said. “We’ve made it easy on him.”

With 2:07 left in the period and the deficit 2-0, Rucchin got inside and cut toward the goal with speed. He pushed a shot into Brodeur as he crashed the net while being pursued by New Jersey defenseman Scott Stevens. The puck trickled through Brodeur’s pads and rested short of the line as play stopped.

Nearly four minutes into the third period, coach Mike Babcock switched his lines to put offensive weapons Kariya, Oates and Petr Sykora together. That combination usually is only formed at home when the Mighty Ducks can have the last line change.

Something had to change because of the drought by Kariya, who led the Ducks with 81 regular-season points. Sykora had two shots in the opener, and Oates had none. Neither had a shot in Game 2.

But it was the Devils who generated some offense less than 30 seconds after the line reconfiguration, as Jeff Friesen beat unscreened Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere to put the game even further out of reach for the punchless Ducks.

“We have to play more desperate as a team,” Oates said.