DEVILS NIP CANES IN GOALTENDING BATTLE

The New Jersey Devils topped the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night by a 1-0 score, with both Martin Brodeur and Cam Ward in top form.  Brodeur stopped 44 shots in the victory, tying Montreal Canadiens legend Patrick Roy’s record for playoff shutouts at 23.  The ‘canes Ward was the tough luck loser, stopping 41 of 42 New Jersey shots. 

Brodeur also had to deal with a 4” cut on his ankle—he collided with Carolina forward Chad LaRose while battling for a loose puck in front of the net and was accidentally slashed across the ankle by a skate blade.  Despite some pain and bleeding, Brodeur stayed in the game and talked about the incident afterwards:

"It cut right through my sock. It was more of a bruise. It's not like it sliced. It just hit me. At first I wasn't sure because I could see the blood. When you get cut by a skate, you don't know what's going on. I'm not that tough. I probably wouldn't have continued if I had to take stitches."

The only goal of the game came at 11:22 of the second period, when New Jersey’s David Clarkson scored on the power play assisted by Andy Greene and Patrik Elias.  Brodeur turned back 19 shots in the second period and 16 in the third period to make Clarkson’s goal stand and give his team a 3-2 lead in the best of seven opening round series.

New Jersey was the tough luck loser on Tuesday night, as Carolina’s Jussi Jokinen deflected Dennis Seidenberg’s slap shot past Brodeur with 0.2 of a second remaining to break a tie game and give the Hurricanes a 4-3 victory.  The play was reviewed for nearly two minutes before the outcome was made official, after which Brodeur displayed a rare bit of temper as he smashed his stick against the rinkside glass as he left the ice.  As evidenced by his performance on Thursday night, he was able to put that game behind him:

"I think it was one of the good ones that I played. I felt really good. I was on top of it. Again, I'll have to erase everything tomorrow, but I am happy about it."

Cam Ward was more focused on his team’s ‘must win’ game six at home on Sunday than in his impressive performance that went for naught:

"There was a lot of opportunities both ways -- shot for shot. Marty made the saves, now we've just got to find a way. We are down 3-2 here, our backs are against the wall and there is a must win on Sunday. We've got to be excited to come to the rink to play on Sunday. We can't be scared."

Despite his record tying shutout performance, Brodeur was more enthused about his team’s victory:

"It's nice but it's all about winning. Playing with a great team, shutouts will happen when you play so many games. It's a lot more dramatic in the playoffs, there are second efforts everywhere. There are a lot of flukey goals. It makes it difficult to get shutouts."

Game six will take place at the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC on Sunday.  Should Carolina win and force a game seven in the series, it’ll be back at the Prudential Center in Newark on Tuesday evening.