Oduya saves Devils' turkey

It would have undoubtedly been a disappointing flight home and Thanksgiving itself might have been ruined.

The Devils had already let a two-goal lead and a shutout slip away in the final 2:19 of regulation. If they hadn't found a way to rebound and defeat the Florida Panthers, their winning streak would have been over and it would have been a long wait until their next game on Saturday night in Pittsburgh.

They can thank Johnny Oduya it didn't turn out that way. Oduya scored his first goal of the season with 55.5 seconds remaining to give the Devils a 3-2 victory at BankAtlantic Center.

The win extended the Devils’ winning streak to five games – their longest since they won five in a row from Feb. 16 to Feb. 24 of last season. That’s something to be thankful for on Thursday when they’re sitting down for their turkey.

“It would have obviously have been very disappointing to play as well as we did, especially that first period and then into the second,” Devils captain Jamie Langenbrunner said. “To lose a two-goal lead, it would have been a tough flight home if we didn’t get the win, but we got the win, so we don’t have to worry about that now.”

Oduya, who also assisted on Brian Gionta’s power-play goal in the first period, scored the winning goal on a 2-on-1 rush with Dainius Zubrus. In trying to hold up a little to let Zubrus catch up. Oduya lost the puck for a second, but regained it in the left circle and fired a wrist shot that somehow found an opening between goaltender Craig Anderson’s pads.

“Maybe I wanted to pass it first and wanted to see what the (defenseman) was doing and I slid over a little bit,” Oduya said. “I looked up, went to shoot it, lost it there for a second and I thought it was going in the corner. But luckily I got it back and shot it. I caught him a little bit off guard I guess, but it’s a big win and especially to come back after that late goal was nice.”

Scott Clemmensen appeared headed for his third career shutout with a 2-0 lead entering the final three minutes. But Jay Bouwmeester got the Panthers on the board with a change-up shot from the slot beat Clemmensen between the pads with 2:19 remaining.

"He broke his stick,” said Clemmensen, who finished with 36 saves. “He came in. He had it right in the slot, went to shoot it and it was almost like an off-speed pitch in baseball. Everything was reacting to his body language. I was out in front of the puck. My stick was out of the way, my pads, everything and since he broke his stick, it came in really slow and went through my legs. If he hadn’t have broken his stick I think I would have saved it.”

Then, David Booth put  the rebound of a Stephen Weiss shot between Clemmensen's pads with only 7.2 seconds left in regulation. It was the second time in less than two weeks that the Devils gave up the tying goal in the final seconds when the opposition had the goaltender pulled for an extra skater. Washington's Alex Ovechkin scored with one second left in the Devils' 6-5 shootout win over the Capitals on Nov. 15.

In overtime, Bryce Salvador swatted the puck out of mid-air and into the netting behind the Devils' goal, resulting in a delay of game penalty and a Panthers' power play. Although some were disputing the call after the game, that's an automatic call by the referee. He has no choice when a defender knocks the puck out of play. The only question was whether the Panther player who was there (I didn't see who it was) also touched it.

"We both swatted at it," Salvador said.

The Devils' penalty killers came through and killed off the power play, though. In fact, the Devils killed off all five Florida power plays in the game, including that 50-second 5-on-3 midway through the third. The Devils are 12-for-12 on the PK over the last three games despite playing without John Madden. Before that, they have given up a power-play goal in five consecutive games.

"Our penalty killing was great again tonight," Devils coach Brent Sutter said. "When you really think about it, it was the difference in the game tonight."

Sutter was pleased again with Clemmensen's play.

"He played very good," Sutter said.

Consider that after the Devils outshot the Panthers, 12-4, in the first period and were ahead 28-11 in shots with 2:29 left in the second period, they were outshot overall in the game 38-37, including 21-9 in the third period and overtime.

"It was a situation where we took the foot off the gas pedal in the last three minutes of the game," Sutter said. "That being said, Clemmer was good and you need that. That's part of winning. Sometimes that's going to happen in a game where things get a little bit away on you and you've got to rely on your goalie a little bit. He gave us that opportunity tonight."

Clemmensen has started five of the last six games and won his last four to improve to 4-2 for the season. The four wins in one season are a career high for him and he appears in line get another start on Saturday in Pittsburgh.

That's something Sutter can ponder for the next couple of days. And everyone else can enjoy their turkey on a rare Thanksgiving at home.

“We got the two points so we can hang our hat on that,” Langenbrunner said. “Obviously, it’s disappointing that we didn’t close it out like we should, but we found a way. That’s the main thing. We got the two points. We move on. We realized we have to get better and try not to let that happen again. It has happened a couple of times in the last little while and fortunately for us we have managed to win in overtime and a shootout.”  

***

Everyone have a great Thanksgiving.

I, for one, am thankful to get out of this building. Between having to use dial-up for a while there and waiting 10 minutes for the elevator to bring me downstairs after the game, it almost spoils being down here in the warm weather for the last couple days.

I hope everyone gets to spend some time with their family and/or friends tomorrow.

Hopefully, Oduya doesn't want to make hitting me in the head part of his game-day ritual.

Comments

["Dr. D" David Schultz]

Oduya is my hero

[DH]

Good stretch, good wins, beating these bad teams. Now it gets tougher and it'd be nice to have Madden back.

[Pearl Jammed(RJ Arditti)]

i thought that first goal looked a little weak, but the broken stick does explain it somewhat.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL MY FELLOW DEVILS FANS!

[Christian T]

johnny Orrduya

[NJSwampdragon]

I haven't been hearing the trade Gionta and play Vrana diatribes on this board lately. That is one thing I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving. Now let's sign him to an extension.

[Pearl Jammed(RJ Arditti)]

Amen Swampdragon

[Speedz]

Gionta has been fulfilling his role and thats wat's important. Zubrus too

[Njdev23]

Come on TG, take one for the team if needed!

[kstatik]

To the "Clemmenson's not an NHL goalie" crew...

Now he's sitting at 7GP, 4W, 2L, 2.48GAA & .917S%.

Not too shabby indeed!

In fact; in 10GP... Marty was 6W, 2L, 2.16GAA & .916S%.

I say keep the black pads! - they seem to be working just fine.

[Dan]

DAVID HALE FINALLY SCORED A GOAL TONIGHT!!!!!! It only took 230 games.

[BF]

TG, I hope youre able to make it home for Thursday. Have a great day and thanks for everything.

[modnarm]

i strongly disliked Hale's play since '06 and was BEGGING for a trade for years. Slow and NO offensive touch whatsoever. Thank God hes taking up space on some1 else's roster.

[roshacla]

Good for Hale! I kind of liked him but he definitely didn't develop into the shutdown d-man we projected him to be.

Oduya was awesome in this game. He pretty much scored Gionta's goal for him and that overtime winner was beautiful (even if it all happened due to him losing control of the puck a little).

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

[Guy]

Im not a Gionta fan, but if its what gets us a cup this year then he should stay. that being said, I hope we do not resign him. Other than one season where all the planets alligned for him, he has done nothing but work so hard to get no results.

[Brodeur30]

5 in a row baby! Even though we blew a 2-0 lead late in the third, the important part is that we still walked out of FL with the "W."

Lame that the rest of the atlantic won tonight (besides the Isles) so we didn't gain any ground. However, the Rags have 4 games in hand on us so we can close the gap...The first line looked pretty good again and I'm glad Zajac lit the lamp. He's playing very well this year and, after a bad soph slump, looks poised to put up some good numbers this year. Zpar made a great saucer pass to langs that led to the second goal.

Hope everyone has a GREAT t-giving tomorrow! Big test coming up on Sat VS the Penguins! GOOOOO DEVS GO!

[Salvatore from Garfield]

I've been so happy with how the devils played these past few games. Most important things I've noticed: We don't turn in the towel after the opponent scores. Remember what that was like last year?!?! (check out our first game against pittsburgh)

TG- Do you think the PK/PP will be ranked much higher near the end of the season? Our PK and PP were so bad at the beginning of the year, and it seems like now things are clicking on both sides of the special teams.

[Salvatore from Garfield]

BTW- Happy Thanksgiving! :]

[Josh]

Happy Thanksgiving TG and all my fellow Devils fans.

[Jill]

Yeah TG apparently hitting you in the head is lucky, might have to take one for the team there haha

Happy Thanksgiving!

[MoonDragn]

I hope they re-sign Gionta. I rather get a guy who works hard all the time than a talented guy who can't be bothered to. Look at where Ottawa is now, they are working a little harder now and getting some wins but still there are a lot of lazy players on that team.

[Shtikl]

"Foot off the gas pedal" -- yeah, all it takes is a momentary lapse. The L-Devils have to thank Nicklas Bergfors for taking a good penalty and saving Frazee's first pro shutout last night: Bergi did NOT take his foot off the gas, and that made a huge difference in Lowell.

[steve]

TG, can't thank you enough for all of the great Devil's info

Everyone have a great thanksgiving

[Halo Moe]

The 5-game streak has been great, and definitely needed, but the late goal by Ovechkin and last night's tying goal still indicates that we need to upgrade the D. We're still missing that one defensive piece. I don't know if it'll be Bouwmeester, but it's gotta be someone. Still, let's keep the streak going! Happy T-Day everyone!

[Matthew Butterworth]

Happy Thanksgiving to all me fellow devil comrades. Have a great day and thanks you for this board. The devil community is well informed by your work. Thanks alot and have a great day

[Mark]

Thanks for the coverage once again TG- top notch as always. Happy Turkey Day...