The records are coming fast and furious for the Devils, a sure sign of a superior squad. If they break their home winning streak record tomorrow, Martin Brodeur can tie the all-time victory mark Saturday in his native Montreal.
“That means good things. A record for home victories means the season is going well,” Jamie Langenbrunner said after the Devils tied that team record with their eighth straight home victory – for the first time in Newark – beating the Flames 3-2 last night.
The triumph was Brodeur’s 549th career, keeping him on-track to tie Patrick Roy’s NHL record of 551 victories Saturday, provided he beats the Coyotes tomorrow.
“It’s still alive. We still have that chance, one more game to go,” said Brodeur, 4-0 at home, 5-1 overall, in his return from missing 50 games from elbow surgery.
“It’ll be a tough one with a lot of young players coming in with Phoenix. We didn’t know our opponent much tonight, it’ll be even worse on Thursday.”
It was a full turnaround from their 7-3 loss at Nassau Coliseum Saturday to the league-worst Islanders, beating the Northwest leaders. They have not lost two straight games in more than two months, since Jan. 6-8, going 20-6 thereafter.
“It was a great response. We responded the way I’d like to see us respond, yet I’m not surprised,” Brent Sutter said.
The team that hasn’t lost at home in more than a month, Feb. 7 to L.A., even came back after Calgary opened the scoring. The center that Calgary acquired – and the Devils did not – at last week’s trade deadline put the Flames on top with his third in four games with his new team, 10:42 into play.
Olli Jokinen won an offensive draw from Dainius Zubrus, and after Mike Cammalleri grabbed a rebound, put away his 24th on a back door feed to the right side from David Moss.
Langenbrunner tied the game with his third shorthander of the year, pulling within one of his career best with his 22nd of the season at 5:10 of the second. Langenbrunner was moving through the left lane to take Colin White’s pass from the left boards and shoot between the pads of Mikka Kiprusoff, the puck squeezing through and trickling over the line.
Langenbrunner stretched his point streak to his season-best six games.
Brian Rolston put the Devils in front with a power-play goal at 18:01 of the second. Brendan Shanahan’s deliberate shot from the left circle, through Zubrus’ screen, rebounded for Rolston to tuck around Kiprusoff for his 13th. Niclas Havelid picked up his first point as a Devil with the secondary assist.
Zach Parise snapped his three-game goal drought with his 39th 1:15 into the third, poking the puck under Kiprusoff during a scramble around the Calgary net. Mike Keenan replaced Kiprusoff with winless Curtis McElhinney at that point. Curtis Glencross made it close on a 6-on-4, with McElhinney pulled, with 0.9 seconds left.
Devils 3 Flames 2