Devils romp 5-1 over hapless Senators

December 19, 2008   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

Every so often, you hear the expression ‘this is a trap game’.  That’s what tonight was for the Devils, with their third game in four nights against a bad team at home.  Not to mention facing a week ahead with Philly, Boston and the Penguins at the Rock, followed by a game at the Garden.

So much for the trap, as the Devils walloped Ottawa 5-1 and again proved they not only have the maturity to handle such games but the understanding that they need every point they can get with Martin Brodeur still out, and on top of that both John Madden and Bryce Salvador were unhealthy scratches for tonight’s game (word on both is ‘illness’ for Madden and ‘upper body injury’ for Salvador).

Unbeliveably for the third straight game, the Devils scored a goal in the first two minutes of the game when a shot from Paul Martin was deflected home by Brian Gionta for his ninth goal of the season just 40 seconds in.  At 14:28 of the first, New Jersey scored again on the power play when a cross-ice pass from Zach Parise found Johnny Oduya, whose well-timed pinch resulted in his third goal of the year.

For most of the first period and the start of the second, the Devils did what they needed to do and took it to a struggling Sens team.  Ottawa bottomed out when Daniel Alfredsson tried to score by flipping the puck off of Scott Clemmensen‘s helmet from behind the net and wound up only stopping play by putting the puck on top of the goal.  Strangely, the Sens rallied after that and took advantage of a sloppy Devils power play to get on the scoreboard.  Jamie Langenbrunner failed to keep the puck in on the point, and Martin didn’t go over to Chris Kelly fast enough, so Kelly had more than enough room to find Jarko Ruutu at 8:37 for a shorthanded goal – the first the Devils have given up all season.

After Ruutu’s goal, Ottawa got their fair share of chances including a couple of power plays but failed to convert and in the final minute of the second period the Devils’ power play atoned for their earlier mistake when a Parise shot was stopped by Alex Auld, but Patrik Elias put home the rebound for his 14th goal of the season and third point of the night (after assists on the first two goals).

Now back in front by two, the Devils regained control of the game in the third and shut down a once-mighty Ottawa attack that is amazingly last in scoring in the conference.  It seemingly wouldn’t be a Devils game without a Parise goal, and he was intially credited with his 19th of the year at 12:09 after Langenbrunner threw the puck on net, but later replays showed it never hit Parise’s stick.  Yahoo! is currently showing the goal as Travis Zajac‘s 9th but it could just as easily be Langenbrunner’s sixth.  Oh well, eventually they’ll get to the bottom of it.  Moments later, Elias concluded his masterful performance with another power play goal off a deflection and the Devils sewed up a convincing win.  Clemmensen made 24 saves for his tenth win of the season, a total that seemed unthinkable even in the wake of Brodeur’s injury.

BoNY Three Stars:

1. Patrik Elias (two goals, two assists)
2. Zach Parise (four assists)
3. Travis Zajac (one goal, two assists)