Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Martin Brodeur stopped 33 of 34 shots
to pick up his 438th win and move into fourth place all-time as the New Jersey
Devils beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1, at the Wachovia Center.
John Madden scored his 100th career-goal and Scott Gomez, Jason Wiemer and
Sergei Brylin tallied the other goals for the Devils, who are tied with
Montreal for the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race and
are just five points behind Philadelphia for the fifth position.
Simon Gagne netted his 42nd goal of the season and Antero Niittymaki stopped
27 shots for the Flyers, who have lost back-to-back games. Peter Forsberg and
Mike Knuble each had an assist in the contest, the first of back-to-back games
for Philadelphia, which will play the New York Islanders on Sunday.
New Jersey jumped in front nearly 4 1/2 minutes into the game off a 3-on-1
rush score from Madden. The forward grabbed the rebound off Brodeur's stick
and began the odd-man rush. Madden skated down the middle of the ice and fed a
pass to Grant Marshall, who faked the shot and drew out Niittymaki, then gave
the disc back to Madden, who put the puck into the open net.
The Devils doubled their lead with 5:53 remaining in the second period as
Gomez' wrist shot was deflected off Flyers defenseman Derian Hatcher through
Niittymaki's five hole.
Wiemer took a drop pass from Brian Gionta in the left circle and tallied a
goal 1:20 later to up the score to 3-0.
Gagne put the Flyers on the board with a wrap around power-play goal at the
3:44 mark of the third period, but Philadelphia couldn't get any closer.
With 3:42 to play New Jersey gained its three goal advantage back as Elias
ripped a shot and Brylin put in a rebound to push the score 4-1.
