Brodeur Strong Again for Devils

Martin Brodeur is still the strongest part of the New Jersey Devils’ stingy defense.

Brodeur made 33 saves in recording his fourth shutout of the season as the Devils beat the Boston Bruins, 1-0, Monday night at Boston. He is 17th on the NHL career list with 59 shutouts.

“The Devils don’t have a weak blue-liner back there and they go six deep,” Bruin captain Joe Thornton said. “It’s tough when they score that first goal because Brodeur plays the puck so well that it limits your offense.”

Brodeur began this season with a 2.21 goals-against average, the lowest in the modern era.

Jay Pandolfo scored the only goal at 16:13 of the first period when John Madden’s shot from in close deflected off of Pandolfo’s leg and beat John Grahame.

“I think Madden just shot the puck and backhanded it off my leg,” Pandolfo said. “I’ll take as many of those as I can get.”

The Bruins’ best chance to score was with 2:54 left when Glen Murray took a feed from Thornton and Brodeur made a blocker save during a flurry in front of the net.

“It was a tough game, but we survived,” Brodeur said. “These type of games remind you that every little mistake, you might pay the price.”

It is the third time the Devils have won 1-0 this season. New Jersey has given up only 73 goals this season, the fewest in the NHL.

Boston has won only two games since Dec 8th.

San Jose 2, Philadelphia 1 -- Rookie Jonathan Cheechoo scored the go-ahead goal from an improbable angle early in the third period at San Jose, and Evgeni Nabokov made 24 saves to lead the Sharks.

After scoring only twice in his first 19 NHL games, Cheechoo has scored key third-period goals in the Sharks’ last two games.

Phoenix 4, Edmonton 3 -- Daymond Langkow scored late in regulation and again in overtime as the Coyotes won at Phoenix.

Sean Burke made 31 saves to win for the second time in two games since his return from an ankle sprain. Burke, who missed 29 games, shut out Philadelphia on Saturday.

Washington 4, Buffalo 3 -- Dainius Zubrus had a goal and an assist at Washington in his return from the injured list and the Capitals extended the Sabres’ losing streak to six games.

Jaromir Jagr broke a 2-2 tie early in the third period, and Mike Grier and Ivan Ciernik also scored for Washington.

New York Islanders 2, Florida 1 -- Roman Hamrlik scored his second goal of the game with 56.9 seconds left in overtime to give the Islanders the victory at Uniondale, N.Y.

The Islanders have won three straight, all at home. They took all seven shots in overtime to move within one game of .500 (15-16-5-0).

Atlanta 3, Pittsburgh 2 -- Ilya Kovalchuk scored on a breakaway with 20 seconds left in overtime at Pittsburgh to lift the Thrashers to their first victory over the Penguins.

Atlanta had lost all 14 previous games against the Penguins since joining the NHL three seasons ago.

Nashville 3, Ottawa 2 -- Bill Houlder broke a third-period tie at Nashville with his first goal in 145 games to lift the Predators.

Denis Arkhipov and Andy Delmore also scored for the Predators. Houlder’s game-winner came in his 200th consecutive game.