KANATA, Ontario – The Devils move from strength to strength, and Scott Clemmensen’s Season of Wonder stands at 20 victories.
“Twenty looks a lot bigger than three,” Clemmensen said of his previous single-season high. “Why stop at 20?”
Why indeed? The Devils won their season-best sixth straight game last night, maintaining their one-point, one-game-in-hand division lead on the Rangers by dominating and finishing off the Senators 4-1. They head to Boston for a showdown with the conference-leading Bruins tomorrow night.
“It was important for us to have a solid game tonight. The guys knew that, too,” coach Brent Sutter said as games resumed around the league after the All-Star break. “First game back, you don’t know what to expect.”
He received more of what the Devils, 23-8-1 in their last 32, have been doing since the initial shock of losing Martin Brodeur wore off. Clemmensen, whose record improved to 20-9-1, allowed one goal in a complete game for the 10th time, though he is still seeking his first shutout of the year after coming up from the minors when Brodeur required surgery.
“It was a pretty complete game for us,” said Jamie Langenbrunner, who broke open a 1-1 tie with his pair of scores.
The Devils took the lead 4:55 into play on a rush after Antoine Vermette was foiled on a right post wrap attempt. The puck went all the way to Brian Gionta at the right boards, and Gionta bulled his way past Chris Kelly and Chris Phillips to fire a pass to the edge of the paint, where Patrik Elias had a step on defenseman Brian Lee. The puck went in off a body and was credited as Elias’ 21st, topping his goal total of last season, and matching last year’s 55-point production.
Ottawa, wearing new black jerseys saying “Sens,” tied the score at 10:54 of the second, when Alexandre Picard one-timed Daniel Alfredsson’s cross-ice pass to the right circle past Clemmensen. The Senators, outshot 10-2 in the opening 12:24, had responded with a 12-5 edge when they scored on the power play.
Langenbrunner put the Devils back in front at 14:19, when he corralled Johnny Oduya’s deflected shot off the end boards, and from the right side, bounced it in off the body of rookie goalie Brian Elliott.
Langenbrunner then made it 3-1 19 seconds into the third, after he put his own rebound wide and Zach Parise knocked the puck back to him for the backhand, his 10th of the year. Brendan Shanahan followed with his second in three games as a Devil at 11:17.
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Jay Pandolfo was a healthy scratch for third straight game. . . . Former Devils first-rounder (1992, 18th) and former Oilers captain Jason Smith was a healthy scratch last night for Senators.
“Anger, disappointment, probably both,” Smith said of sitting out for the first time this season. “I’m going to take it as just a bump in the road, refocus and be ready when I get back to playing. I need to play better, I guess.”