Martin Brodeur shines as New Jersey Devils blank Montreal Canadiens
Martin Brodeur always seems to step up his game when playing in his home town. Once again the Montreal native brought his A-game and led the New Jersey Devils to a 3-0 shutout victory over the Montreal
Canadiens on Thursday 21 October. For Brodeur it was his 39th win in Montreal.
How it happened
New Jersey got their game off to a quick start when Zach Parise sneaked the puck past Canadiens goalie Carey Price on the near side. The puck came around behind the net and out in front to Parise who appeared
to have no room, but the puck somehow slipped in.
Parise's goal was all the Devils would need, but they increased their advantage in the second, just after a Devils' power play had ended, when Jason Arnott threw a speculative wrist shot at the net which
took a deflection and trickled through the pads of Carey Price.
The Devils put the game away in the third when the Devils had a face-off deep in the Canadiens zone. Arnott won the draw and Devils defenceman Matt Taormina had time to wind up and fire a big shot from
the point into the top corner.
What they're saying
The Devils have had a rocky start to the season and now have only two wins – both of which have been shutouts for Brodeur. Brodeur's 29-save performance was the 112th shutout of his career. The Devils
play three games in four nights and Brodeur pointed out how important it was to start a tough string of games off on the right foot.
"We have a big weekend ahead of us, so we wanted to get a good start to our three games in four nights," he said. "But we have to build on it. You don't start a season the way we did and think one game
is going to fix everything. We have to keep working the way we did tonight."
One of the main talking points in Montreal is their struggling power play which has now gone 1-21 on the season, and 0-3 on Thursday night.
"That's a work in progress," Canadiens coach Jacques Martin said. "We need to be better. We created a couple of chances on the power play, but we still need to be better as far as our execution."
The Canadiens will be eagerly anticipating the return of defenceman Andrei Markov, who could be a catalyst in sparking a power play which finished second in the NHL last season but is currently 29th.
What it all means
The Devils now return home to take on the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday 23 October. Jersey's only other victory this season was against the Sabres in Buffalo when Brodeur out-duelled Ryan Miller for 1-0 overtime
win.
The Montreal Canadiens will travel to Ottawa on Saturday to take on the Senators for the second time this season. Montreal won the previous meeting 4-3.
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