In Lou We Trust

The Devils win an exciting a 2-1 game at the Bell Centre. The Devils were keeping up with Montreal for most of the game, skating hard for most of the first half of the game. Since the one power play goal, NJ looked more defensive and relied on counter-attacks to get at Huet. But the game was crucial and a win for NJ for three reasons:

1. Martin Brodeur. He was AMAZING. 33 saves on 34 shots, I counted 7 of those shots resulting in some HUGE saves. Robbing the Canadiens all the night long, the one that beat Marty was a puck deflected twice and even then it trickled past Brodeur. A fluke power play goal, if you will. Brodeur was the #1 star of the game and clearly earned it.
2. THE DEVILS SCORED A POWER PLAY GOAL. The Devils didn't let Huet have an easy night in any sense of the word. The Devils got a scrum up front on their third (I think) power play of the night by their top PP unit, and in the confusion the puck got loose for Brian Rafalski to put it in the empty net. It was the Devils' first power play goal since the Florida game and the first goal scored by a defenseman for the Devils this season. It ended up being a game winning goal.
3. Even rarer, JAY PANDOLFO SCORED A GOAL! It was the end result of a beautiful passing play from John Madden to Paul Martin to a wide open Jay Pandolfo. Not even Jay Pandolfo could have missed that shot. According to Tom Gullati at the Bergen Record, coach Claude Julien had a long talk with Pandolfo and Madden after Thursday night's game and whatever he said worked. The two played great last night. The Devils defenseman joined up on the offense a number of times with success, they played with confidence last night.

I was wrong, Julien did mix up his defensive pairings: Rafalski played with Colin White and Martin played with Johnny Oduya. The defense as a whole played well despite yielding 34 shots to a clearly pumped-up Montreal team. In Gullati's colum, the Devils' defense was banged up at points in the game. White had a skate problem, Martin was banged up, Jim Fahey didn't play the third period due to a tricep injury. The forwards, in general, did well in collapsing on the Canadiens. Montreal had some players hurt, including Alexei Kovalev and Chris Higgins hurting their ankles: I hope both are OK. The Devils had two other of minor injuries of note during the game: including losing Travis Zajac for half of the first period in catching a Guillame Latendresse stick up high (resulting in quite a bit of blood loss and a double minor for Latendresse) and Martin Brodeur being kicked in the head by, you guessed it, Latendresse.

I should note that I don't like Guillame Latendresse. Who kicks a goalie?! He's the only player in the NHL to have ever wore #84. I suppose that makes him the biggest jerk to wear #84 as well.

In either case, the Devils beat the Canadiens thanks to a huge game from Martin Brodeur. A win on the road against a good team is always good for confidence and momentum; something I hope NJ will bring to the table when they host the Hurricanes on Tuesday. Gullati's column notes that while Fahey may be out, Lukowich may be ready for that one. Well, the return of Lukowich would be an upgrade on defense that's for sure.

LOWELL NOTE: The Lowell Devils win 3-2 over the Binghamton Senators. Jordan Parise stopped 44 out of 46 shots for the win. 46 shots given up?! YIKES. But, but, they have Dan McGillis!

Labels: Devils Postgame