Another crazy night

It seems like every time the Devils play the Atlanta Thrashers lately, something strange happens. Tonight's 6-5 Devils' win might have been the craziest of them all.

The Devils led 2-1 after one period, but gave up three goals in the first 8:28 of the second to fall behind, 4-2. On defenseman Garnet Exelby's goal, which gave Atlanta (0-5) its first lead OF THE SEASON at 7:26, ex-Devil Bobby Holik fell on Martin Brodeur from behind as the puck arrived, but the officals ruled that Holik was pushed into Brodeur by David Clarkson.

Then, the Devils bounced back with three consecutive goals, including Sergei Brylin's from his knees at the left side of the net, which went in off Kari Lehtonen's right pad to put the Devils up, 5-4, with 7:55 remaining. But Ilya Kovalchuk's second of the night -- this one on a one-timer from the left circle -- re-tied it with 3:20 left.

Patrik Elias scored the game-winner on the power play with just 27.6 seconds remaining. The win wasn't secure, however, until Brodeur reached back to cover a Toby Enstrom shot that was rolling on the goal line with only 15.7 left.

"It's Atlanta for us," Brodeur said. "Every time we play here it's wild games."

Now 2-3, the Devils avoided matching the worst five-game start in team history. They went 1-4 in their first five in 1983-84 and 1-12 in their first 13.

Overshadowed in tonight's game was Jay Pandolfo's goal with 18.9 seconds left in the second period, which got the Devils within 4-3 at the second intermission. "Jay's goal at the end of the second was huge and we talked about how we had to keep going," Devils coach Brent Sutter said.

Pandolfo, Elias (2), Travis Zajac and Brylin each scored their first goals of the season. Brodeur picked up his first win of the season (1-3) and avoided matching his 0-4 start from 2001-02, which is still the worst of his career. 

Comments

[Maxwell]

I still really like Zajac and Parise on the ice at the same time...

[Nik]

I liked Elias on the point. It's about time he starts scoring big goals, its what he gets paid to do.

[Jon]

Great to see Elias playing Good, hes gotta play with that same intensity every game for the Devils to make it to the playoffs. I like Zubrus's play but hes gotta shoot more, anyone agree? (I've seen him shoot for other teams (buf/wash) and he has a nice shot just wanna see it here.!

[Tom]

Devs opened up 4 and 5
on the road last year
in their first 9 road
games and still won the
division. A 4-5 or 5-4
road trip would seem
to be acceptable if they
can manage it.

[RangersSuck]

"Overshadowed in tonight's game was Jay Pandolfo's goal..."

Really? Not even mentioned by you (and barely mentioned by anyone else) was John Madden's goal 1:46 into the game. The man leads the team in goals, and doesn't even get mentioned in the summary of the game.

What's up with that?

[Nik]

I don't think any of us want to admit that Madden is our leader in goals scored :p I am happy he is putting points up on the board.

[Shari]

Well, You can't say that Sutter hockey is boring, what a nailbiter last night. Maddog leads the Team in goals and Pando leads in penalties. It sure is a new day for devils Hockey.

[TG]

Yes, John Madden leads the team with three goals. And he did score the first goal, which was answered by Atlanta less than a minute later. But Jay Pandolfo's goal may have been the most important one of the game other than the game-winner, obviously.
That gave the Devils some life going into the third period. Before that, they were playing without much emotion after the fourth Atlanta goal.

[jules]

Also overlooked were Parise's 99th and 100th points...

[josh]

wow, I didn't realize Parise had already hit 100. Way to go Zach!!

[josh]

Too add on to that last post, The milestone I'm really waiting for is Brodeur's 500th win! man that is gonna be almost as awsome as the game he passes Roy next season. I hope marty has to stand on his head for the record breaker wouldn't be right to break it with a game like this one.