Jacques Lemaire believed yesterday the Devils had a mini breakthrough and proved it this late afternoon against the Tampa Bay Lightning. What was amazing was that 5 of the Devils goals cam in the 3rd period. In fact the Devils came into the 3rd down 2-1 and had not shown any signs of scoring another goal. David Clarkson had two goals, while Jason Arnott, Patrik Elias, Dainius Zubrus, and Nick Palmieri had the others. Teddy Purcell, Ryan Malone, and Dominic Moore scored for Tampa Bay.
The Devils were able to keep the Lightning top guns off the board like Steven Stamkos, Simon Gagne, Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis, and Victor Hedman. Brodeur made 33 saves on 36 shots while Dan Ellis made 20 on 26 Devils shots. The turning point of the game was the Devils killing off a 4 minute power play for Tampa Bay in the 3rd period. Andy Greene took a high sticking double minor just seconds after the Devils Clarkson tied the game at 2, but then towards the end of the 4 minute penalty, the Devils drew a penalty and scored immediately on the 4 on 4 with Arnott deflecting the puck of his hip. That goal energized the crowd and the Devils.
All in all it was another good effort for Marty Brodeur despite giving up 3 goals. Brodeur made some of his old form saves and hopefully this is where the confidence finally starts to slowly come back. The Devils will play the same Tampa Bay team in Florida this Friday and it is their next game.
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Anton Volchenkov sat out the game due to the death of his father Alexei, a former Russian hockey player himself. He is to fly immediately to Russia for the funeral and it is unknown when he will return to the Devils.
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Rangers forward Alexander Frolov will miss the remainder of the year with a Torn ACL and MCL.
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