New Jersey Devils skate to close pre-season victory over the Philadelphia Flyers
Whenever the name Ilya Kovalchuk is mentioned, two things immediately come to mind. The first is the colossal 17-year, $102 million contract that the Devils tried to sign him to that was
later rejected by the National Hockey League. The second is the fact that the skilled left-winger has a penchant for being a sniper on the ice.
The latter was true as the Russian helped his new team win an exhibition game against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night. With a little more than two minutes remaining in the game,
Kovalchuk scored a goal that gave the Devils a 3-2 victory.
New Jersey also got goals from newcomer Adam Mair and centre Travis Zajac. The team was coming off of three losses in a row which all came in shootouts or in overtime. The game was deadlocked
at two goals apiece until Kovalchuk scored the game-winner to stave off another visit to overtime for the Devils.
Veteran goaltender Martin Brodeur played through the entire game, and made 26 saves en route to a win. Brian Boucher got the call for Flyers, who recently lost starting goalie and playoff
hero Michael Leighton to an injury. He stopped 25 shots for the loss.
The Flyers’ goals came from Jeff Carter and Nikolai Zherdev, who signed with the team as a free agent after having played in Russia last season. Carter’s goal opened the scoring at 1:28
of the first period when he deflected a pass that had been destined for Zherdev. Zherdev’s tally was the only one of the second frame, coming off of a great pass from Scott Hartnell. Adam Mair tied the game at one with by capitalizing on a pass from David
Clarkson.
The Devils tied the game at two in the third period when Zajac scored a power-play goal at 14:40. It was the home team’s first pre-season power-play goal. Mattias Tedenby would later feed
Kovalchuk with a pass that would result in the Devils’ third goal of the night.
Last season, the Devils skated to a first-place finish in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference with 103 points. They earned a trip to the postseason, but they eventually fell
to the Flyers in five games during the Eastern Conference quarter-final. The Flyers went on to face the Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference final, before facing the Chicago Blackhawks for the Stanley Cup.
The Flyers will play their next pre-season game on Wednesday night against the New York Islanders, while the Devils will face the Islanders on Saturday night.
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