Well it was another night in Montreal for Martin Brodeur and the Devils. New Jersey would go on to win 4-2 and Brodeur was once again excellent in his hometown. It is always a treat watching Marty do work in Montreal, especially because of his dominance against the Habs. It was not an easy win tonight though, as it never is between these two, they are usually closely contested.
The start of the game would see a furious pace from the Canadiens, that the Devils were somehow able to avoid from becoming ugly. There were plenty of opportunities early that were created by the former Devils, Gionta and Gomez, but Brodeur would turn them aside and the Devils escaped the furious Montreal offensive at the onset.
In an effort to counter act the quick Montreal start, David Clarkson would try to set the tone for New Jersey by scrapping with big man Hal Gil. The fight was nothing to get worked up over, but Clarkson held his own against his over-sized opponent and that alone could have given the Devils the jump-start they needed.
After a slew of games in which they saw hardly any power play success, the Devils have gotten on a bit of a roll in the last two games and hoped to continue that trend against the Habs. The Canadiens took a penalty at the 7:31 mark when Hamrlik was called for tripping Kovalchuk when he was blazing in on Halak (possible penalty shot material), to give New Jersey their first odd man chance of the night. It didn’t take long to see if that power play would have any success on this night because Zach Parise made a beautiful pass through the crease area to a wide open Patrik Elias who roofed it high over a diving Halak and Jersey would get the first goal of the game…again. That doesn’t necessarily mean they would hang on though, as past games will document.
What transpired next would certainly help to solidify the chances of winning the game, and that was yet another power play goal in the second by Jamie Langenbrunner. Lags connected off a devastating, turn around slap-shot, 2-0 Devils (Kovalchuk had an assist). This is where games for the Devs tend to get a bit hairy. In the new NHL it is so difficult to hold leads these days, a team that is trailing by two is in no way out of it. The Devils have had their fair share of problems lately keeping a lead and as usual they were tested again.
Andrei Kostitsyn made it 2-1 after he received a great pass from behind the goal line by Scott Gomez, a slap-shot that was just blown past Brodeur. At this point it was a critical time for the Devils to continue to apply the pressure and do away with any advantage Montreal had. It speaks volumes about what kind of team you have when they are able to respond quickly, as though nothing fazed them. It took a little while after the Kostitsyn goal, but it happened. At the 15:19 mark of the second, a point shot by Paul Martin (who has been playing great since his return) went off of Dainius Zubrus who was screening in front. It is important to note that on this goal, Vladamir Zharkov did great work in the corner to keep the puck alive, he made the goal happen (Zharkov had been previously scratched the last nine games).
So the lead was back up to two again, could the Devils hang on? Well, not quite. The period was not yet over when Tomas Plekanec was in front of the net and a shot by Andrei Kostitsyn went off of his skate (there was no forward kicking motion) and into the net, just like that, after hard work to get the two goal lead back, Jersey surrendered it before the period was even over.
How would this game end? Would the Devils see yet another lead be vanquished and have to go silently into the night? Perhaps it would have happened on any other night, in any other city, but Marty was up to the challenge of preserving the lead in his home town. He turned aside all eight shots (there was plenty of traffic around him at times during this period, it seemed like there could have been more) that the Habs shot at him. The Devils could not allow a last minute goal like they did against the Rangers on Thursday. In fact, one man in particular hustled his ass off to put the game away and make the empty net goal possible. Illya Kovalchuk put in into ninth gear when the puck was cleared out of the Devils end, he caught up to it after a Canadien was skating at it, took it right from him and gave Brian Rolston a pass for the easy empty netter. It was Brian’s 700th career point and it is a great sign when Kovy realizes something like that, he is really starting to gel with his new team. He cold have easily taken the goal for himself but decided to pass it up and let Roly get his milestone point.
The Devils played another good game tonight and are looking much better these days but they aren’t out of the woods yet. The Pens are still hot on our trails and one slip up could cost us the second seed and drop us to fourth. We don’t want to get into the possible ramifications of a fourth seed right now, but needless to say, it would not be good. The power play appears to be well off for the time being and they should continue to work on it in practice in order to make it a potent one for the playoffs.
Speaking of the playoffs, this win secured the Devils a 13th consecutive playoff spot (second only to Detroit), truly an amazing accomplishment for this franchise.
The Devils will visit the struggling, and suddenly desperate, Flyers tomorrow night at 7 EST. I expect Zharkov to be in the lineup once again and the lines to be similar to what tonight’s had. GO DEVILS!