Despite dominance, Devils survive scare in Florida

October 10, 2009   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

It’s hard to believe the Devil team that took the ice tonight in Florida was the same one that couldn’t complete a pass to save their lives during the first two games of the year.  Tonight, the boys in white looked like a well-oiled machine with crisp passing, plenty of quality chances and keeping air-tight defense (with one exception).  Yet, in one of those games that make you think hockey’s nuts the Devils lost the lead twice and had to hang on for dear life late to come out of Florida with a 3-2 regulation win and two points.

Give full credit to Tomas Vokoun, the Panther goaltender who was blistered the night before in Carolina for five goals in two periods but put on a show in front of the home fans tonight with 38 saves, many of them high-quality.  While Vokoun kept his team in the game, both teams showed resilency throughout the night – in Florida’s case weathering the storm and coming back to tie twice, while the Devils didn’t waver despite the early failures to score and rallied almost immediately for goals each time the Panthers tied it.

Although the Devils looked a bit shaky in the first few minutes, they soon asserted their dominance and pretty much kept up a high level of play throughout.  At one point from midway through the first period to early in the second, the Devils had at least fifteen straight shots on net without giving up one, but there were still matching donuts on the scoreboard until more than halfway through the game.  When the Devils finally did score, it was on a nice play in front as Paul Martin got the puck behind the net and threaded a pass in the middle of three defenders to Rob Niedermayer, who was somehow untouched in front of the crease and put it past Vokoun at 11:14 for his second goal of the year.

You would think it would be smooth sailing for New Jersey after they finally broke the wall in front of Vokoun’s net but just two minutes and 44 seconds later, the Panthers took advantage of a faulty line change and Rostislav Olesz scored on a partial breakaway to tie the game again.  For a couple minutes, the Devils sagged after Olesz’s momentum-killing goal and a Johnny Oduya penalty gave the Panthers their best chance to take the lead.  However, the Devils killed most of the penalty off before Florida’s Michael Frolik took the first of what would be three straight minor penalties that cost his team big-time.  Travis Zajac made Frolik pay for his first penalty with a hard wrist shot from in between the circles that beat Vokoun at 17:47 giving Zajac his third goal of the season and his second critical one in three nights.

Ironically it was a stick-holding penalty on Zajac that led to Florida’s tying goal with just 5:23 to go in the game, though the real culprit on Stephen Weiss’s goal was Oduya, who went too far up toward the blueline and got caught with cement in his skates as Weiss deked around him and roofed one on Martin Brodeur to tie the game once more.  Suddenly, in a game the Devils would outshoot Florida by a margin of 41-21 (including 16-4 in the first), the very real possibility of overtime loomed.  Enter Frolik, whose third penalty in a row led to his team’s ultimate downfall when a pass from Zajac near the circle found David Clarkson in front, and even Vokoun could do nothing to stop that goal with just 3:35 left, which was almost identical to the Niedermayer score earlier in the game.  Clarkson summed up his team’s resolve nicely:

“A team with leadership and good veterans will keep coming,” Clarkson said. “The way we did it shows our leadership right there. When they score late in the game to tie it up, we don’t just give up and sit there. We came back out and made sure we were getting chances to come back and win the game.”

Of course, the Devils had to withstand a furious Panther rally late that saw them get at least two terrific chances with the net empty and under a minute left but finally the buzzer sounded and the Devils had a much-deserved, if more stressful than expected victory.  Missed opportunities and the quality of the opposition aside, this game was very encouraging from a Devils standpoint.  While the Zajac line with Zach Parise and Jamie Langenbrunner looks as good as ever, Niedermayer and a revived Jay Pandolfo also have chemistry – both players who I would have considered offensive scrubs before the season (and still may be over time).  Even Andy Greene looks a lot more confident offensively, contributing an assist for a second consecutive game and doing things I’ve never seen him do, certainly not when he had all of nine points in 49 games last season with none on the power play.  He already surpassed the latter total tonight by getting an assist on the Zajac goal.

With a game against the suddenly slumping Caps (two straight one-goal losses) in Washington on Columbus Day upcoming, the Devils can really finish off the trip with a bang if they play the way they did tonight.  In any case, at least the team looks more confident and is starting to find itself early in this young season, after a game which Jacques Lemaire had high praise for his team:

“Overall, it’s probably our best game from the first minute to the last,” Lemaire said. “Through the whole game, we probably had one average shift.”

Notes: In the latest twist to the Brendan Shanahan saga, after the now ex-Devil cleared waivers, the Devils were able to terminate his contract making the 40-year old an unrestricted free agent and getting him both off the cap and the payroll.  Not that the Devils need the cap room but hey a million dollars saved I’m sure makes owner Jeff Vanderbeek happy.  Apparently there’s a clause in the CBA that allows for termination of a contract if a player refuses to render his services after clearing waivers.  So guess we’ll see where – if anywhere – Shanny goes now.

BoNY Three Stars:

1. Travis Zajac (goal, assist)
2. Tomas Vokoun (38/41 saves)
3. David Clarkson (game-winning PP goal, -1)