Wow, where do I even begin?! First things first, the Devils and Flyers both played their bottoms off in this one. I mean, when there are 29 penalties given, adding up to 70 PIMs overall, you have to believe that this win for New Jersey was not handed to them on a sliver platter. So congratulations to the Devils, as the "Marty Marty shut-out" party" breezed pucks by "Bryz" and the Flyers. The pace of the game was very fast, and fighting for the puck was the name of the game. Now "fighting" in this game did not just mean doing it for the puck. Many scrums took part after the whistles in this contest, not to mention a few fights one-on-one. I would even say that the physicality was negative for Philadelphia, because they took two unsportsmanlike penalties and they accumulated more time on the ice for their sub-par special teams.
As I mentioned in the game preview, the Philadelphia special teams have been atrocious. I also stated that a key aspect of the game for the New Jersey is to stay within their game and out of the penalty box. Well that obviously ended up not mattering... While Philly has some very dangerous attackers on their power play, for some reason it has just not clicked yet this year. At the start of the game, even strength, Philadelphia outshot New Jersey by a good margin. Despite the fact that the Devils got an early goal, I feel the Flyers outplayed the Devils to begin the night. Well that all ended once the penalties arrived. Yeah, the Devils committed the first two penalties that were almost back-to-back, but it still changed the game. When the Flyers' power play was unsuccessful on both attempts, the Devils were given another momentum booster on top of their first goal. It was then that the Devils evened the playing field and let the goalies decide the game. Whenever the amount of time players serve in the penalty box is anything like this, the game is decided by two factors. One of them is obviously who can play stronger on the power play or penalty kill, but the more important one is which goalie can stay solid longer.
New Jersey's first tally came from Travis Zajac once again to open the night's scoring. It was only 1:07 into the game when Dainius Zubrus chased his puck into the Flyers' zone along to left-side boards. He then carried the puck around the back of the net and fed a pass to defenseman Bryce Salvador at the high, right point. Salvador took a shot on net that rebounded in front of the net to Zajac who swept up the puck, moved around Bryzgalov, and netted his second goal of the season.
Nearing the end of the first period, Flyers defenseman, Braydon Coburn, committed an interference penalty. New Jersey wasted little time before capitalizing on it, as David Clarkson scored ten seconds later. The power play started in the face-off circle to Bryzgalov's right, where Travis Zajac won the puck back to Marek Zidlicky. Zidlicky passed over to Kovalchuk along the blue line, setting up a shot that went wide left and bounced behind the net on the end-boards. And now this part is very interesting. As David Clarkson skated across Bryzgalov, "Bryz" straightened out his arm to protect his crease, leading Clarkson to knock Bryzgalov's stick out of his hands. Thankfully for the Devils, Clarkson still had his own stick and came out of a small mess behind the net with the puck. Clarkson pushed the puck in the near corner of the net where Ilya Bryzgalov could have had his stick for what I like to call, a "working man's" goal. Leaving twenty-five seconds on the clock before the buzzer to end the first period, Jersey led 2-0.
If Kimmo Timonen did not learn in the past few years to keep Ilya Kovalchuk away from any breakaways or penalty shots, I can guarantee you the lesson has been learned. In the second period, the two vets were one-after-another skating towards the Flyers net. When Timonen, behind Kovalchuk, hooked Kovy forcing a penalty shot, it was now Ilya vs. Ilya. Ilya Kovalchuk got Bryzgalov to drop to his stomach, which just made things a piece of cake for Kovy. Kovalchuk brought the puck to his backhand and then immediately to the inner crossbar inside the goal. That final goal of the game brought it to a 3-0 New Jersey lead.
The Flyers' net seemed "humangous big" to the Devils tonight. Three goals on three shots is what you would see if you looked at the jumbotron after Kovalchuk's penalty shot goal. I would say Martin Brodeur was really something else tonight in his performance, but he is usually this good so it would not be as accurate for this circumstance. Great save after great save, followed by a better save. Thats what he did tonight. It was shut-out number 120 and counting for the future hall of famer.
The Devils next game is at home on Friday, January 25, against the Washington Capitals at 7PM ET. The hunt for 3-0-0 is on! Go Devils!
