A showdown that lived up to its billing

January 29, 2009   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

For the first part of the 2008-09 season the Bruins had been nothing short of dominant, tied for the most points in the NHL with 75 in 48 games, including a 18-3-2 record at home.  As a team, Boston was second in goals scored and tied for first in fewest goals allowed.  While a resurgent Devils team has overcome key injuries to lead the Atlantic Division with 63 points, with Cinderella story Scott Clemmensen coming out of nowhere to register 20 wins.  Tonight’s matchup in Boston was hyped as a litmus test for both teams.

For a late January matchup it sure delivered a game with playoff-type intensity and wild emotional swings all around, finally ending in OT with a 4-3 Devils win.

Just three minutes and change in you got the feeling this game could be something special when Bryce Salvador dropped the gloves with rugged Scott Thornton in an intense bout.  Though both held their own in the fight, Salvador probably got the worst of it physically, banging up his hand both there and again midway through the second period but he stayed in the game and played 18:31 on the night.

Early on Clemmensen made the saves to keep his team in the game, stopping fourteen Bruins shots in the first period including the first of a series of Boston power plays ‘earned’ after one of their players took a convenient dive to the ice (in this case Marc Savard who I guess I don’t like as much now as during All-Star weekend).  Boston received four of the game’s five power plays and on at least three of them you could have made a reasonable case for diving.  I thought I was watching the ’06 Canes out there.

Ironically the Devils wound up scoring on that first Bruins power play at 15:01 when Jamie Langenbrunner (a.k.a our bank shot expert) directed a puck off of Savard through Tim Thomas and over the goalline just before Zdeno Chara could sweep the puck away for Langenbrunner’s 11th goal of the year and second bank shot in three nights.  Hey, at least he’s found a way to hit the net consistently again

While Thomas could do nothing about that goal, he kept his team in the game single-handedly in the second, making a series of big saves on the Langenbrunner-Zajac-Parise line in particular early in the period.  Proving the captain’s a good teacher however, Zach Parise managed to score his 29th of the year on a bank shot of his own from behind the net at 13:39, on the Devils’ only power play of the night.

Leading 2-0 and in control after outshooting the Bruins 13-5 in the second period, it looked as if they were about ready to put away the game early in the third when they swarmed Thomas again, but Travis Zajac clanked the potential back-breaking goal off a post and moments later a gaffe by Clemmensen changed the momentum.  He was trying to play the puck behind the net and wound up tripping over Chuck Kobasew, who somehow missed the initial wraparound attempt with a completely empty net, but Salvador wound up batting the puck in, and just like that the Bruins finally started to show why they have the second-ranked offense in the league. 

Savard would tie it at 7:11 when a feed from Phil Kessel found him open just in front of the goal crease, then Dennis Wideman scored what seemed to be a backbreaker at 13:30 - technically not a power play goal but Wideman’s goal actually came a second after another contreversial penalty from Mike Rupp had expired.

Now behind 3-2 it looked as if the Devils wouldn’t get any points at all from this game – until Thomas got beat by still another deflection with just 1:45 left, as a Brian Gionta pass went off of Patrik Elias‘s skate (again a clean goal, no kicking motion) for Elias’s 22nd of the season – and second ‘soccer-style’ goal in two games. 

With the bounces now going the Devils’ way, perhaps it was fitting that the captain would bring the two points home for New Jersey in overtime – off a rebound in front this time - just 71 seconds into the extra period.  While the Devils remain ten points behind Boston for top seed in the conference even after tonight’s win in Boston, it sent a clear message to the Bruins and the rest of the league that the Devils are once again a force to be reckoned with.

Notes: New Jersey’s win vaulted the Devils ahead of Washington for second place in the conference, and extended their lead in the division to three points over the Rangers and six over the Flyers.  The Devils are right back in action tomorrow night at the Rock against the Penguins and their suddenly healthy captain (hah).  It will only be the second home game for the Devils in their last ten contests.

BoNY Three Stars:

1. Jamie Langenbrunner (2 goals, assist, +2)
2. Marc Savard (goal, assist, dive)
3. Travis Zajac (2 assists, +2)