East Rutherford, NJ (Sports Network) - Martin Brodeur stopped all three Flyers
in the shootout to help the New Jersey Devils defeat Philadelphia, 2-1, at
Continental Airlines Arena in the first game back from the Olympic break for
both teams.
Viktor Kozlov scored the Devils' only goal in regulation and added another in
the shootout, while Brodeur made 26 saves for New Jersey, which has won three
of its last four games.
"That's a team we are looking up to in the standings," Brodeur said. "This
definitely was a good effort. They are one of the teams on top and we need to
play well against these clubs. It was a pretty good hockey game concerning
that it has been a while that no one has played."
Brian Savage scored the only goal for Philadelphia, which has lost two
straight and five of its last seven games. Robert Esche stopped 31 shots
in the loss.
After Brodeur stopped Mike Richards with an arm save to start the shootout,
Kozlov beat Esche glove-side to give the Devils the early advantage. Brodeur
followed with a blocker save on Petr Nedved and Esche made a right-pad save on
Zach Parise.
Peter Forsberg had a chance to tie the contest on the next attempt, but
Brodeur flashed the stick and stoned Forsberg to seal the win.
"It's a tough start," Forsberg said. "We fought for 60 minutes -- I thought we
played well. The fighting spirit the team showed through 60 minutes was
great."
This also was the first game in which the referee's checked each player's
stick prior to their shootout attempt. The referee's were checking the sticks
for illegal length, width or curve to the blade and the rule was prompted
because players were allegedly switching sticks before taking the ice for
their shootout attempt.
"From what I'm told, there was a problem," Devils general manager and head
coach Lou Lamoriello said. "It was because the rule that was implemented was
there would be no checking of the stick, which is contradictory to the rule in
the book prior to the shootout. Rather than having it checked after a goal was
scored, which you would do normally everytime somebody scored, there's no
penalty in checking. There were some sticks being changed and switched. It was
a gentleman's rule."
New Jersey drew first blood with 8:01 left in the first period after Kozlov
benefited from Brian Gionta's hustle behind the Flyers' net. Gionta blocked a
blind backhanded clearing attempt by Esche and fed the puck into the slot to
Kozlov, who batted it into the open net for a 1-0 lead.
Philadelphia netted the equalizer 8:23 into the second period after Savage
slapped a rebound from just inside the right circle through Brodeur's five-
hole.
Mike Rathje took a slap shot from the high slot, but Brodeur made a left-pad
save. The rebound kicked out to Savage for the one-timer.
