Martin Brodeur gets 77th career shutout

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. --Lou Lamoriello paid Martin Brodeur the ultimate compliment -- when he finally got around to mentioning the star goalie after the New Jersey Devils' shutout victory over Philadelphia.

"I thought that our power play, our five-on-five, our short-handed, all of them contributed," said Lamoriello, the team president and general manager who stepped behind the bench as interim coach following Larry Robinson's resignation.

"And of course, Marty was there when he had to be. He's the key to our hockey club."

Brodeur made 22 saves for his 77th career shutout, Zach Parise and Jamie Langenbrunner had power-play goals and Scott Gomez also scored in the resurgent Devils' 3-0 victory over the Atlantic Division-leading Flyers on Monday night.

Brodeur, in his 13th season with New Jersey, broke a tie with former Chicago star Tony Esposito for seventh place on the NHL's career shutout list and moved two ahead of Toronto's Ed Belfour for first place among active goalies.

The three-time Stanley Cup champion goalie helped the Devils win their fourth straight, their longest winning streak of the season. Before the streak, the Devils had lost 11 of 14. New Jersey, 6-5 since Lamoriello took over the coaching duties, also tied Tampa Bay for eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

In the other NHL games, Colorado routed St. Louis 6-1, Dallas edged Minnesota 2-1, and Anaheim beat Los Angeles 6-2.

Brodeur was steady but not spectacular, if only because his teammates clamped down on the Flyers after the first period and kept them out of his way most of the time. It was reminiscent of the Devils' heyday in the late 1990s when they routinely beat the Flyers at Continental Airlines Arena with suffocating defense.

"In the old days, we used to be like that, but it's been different for us, definitely," Brodeur said. "We won in Buffalo Saturday and didn't practice (Sunday), so we had a whole day off and didn't see each other except for about 45 minutes this morning. But I think everybody deep down knew that it was the Flyers coming in and we wanted to make sure we had our 'A' game."

Patrik Elias had two assists, giving him at least one point in four games since returning from hepatitis. Elias missed the team's first 39 games and the Devils also have had to cope with defenseman Scott Stevens' retirement and the loss of star defenseman Scott Niedermayer through free agency. Then on Dec. 19, Robinson resigned and defenseman Vladimir Malakhov retired.

"A lot went on at the beginning of the year," Gomez said. "Some nights, some guys were there, other nights they weren't. The way the league is now, you have to have every guy going, every line going, every night and putting the effort in."

Brodeur has struggled along with the rest of the Devils, going 18-14-3 with a 2.78 goals-against average, significantly above his career mark of 2.20. The Canadian Olympic goalie missed six games in October and November because of a sprained knee and did not have a shutout until Jan. 3 against Florida. In 2003-04, he had 11.

Philadelphia dropped to 7-1-1 on its team-record 11-game trip. The Flyers had earned at least a point in 17 of their previous 19 games and hadn't lost in regulation since falling to Vancouver on Dec. 15. They also had beaten the Devils in nine of the last 10 meetings, including the 2004 playoffs.

"When you play a team like this, it's the first team to crack, and it was us tonight," Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock said.

Parise scored on a power play with 5:13 left in the first period, Langenbrunner made it 2-0 on another power play with 8:18 remaining in the second, and Gomez added his 17th of the season at 8:08 of the third.

"Once they got the lead, they were able to sit on it," Hitchcock said. "I don't think we played with the emotional level that we have at times. A lot of that is New Jersey. They play a very methodical game and they take the emotion out of it."

Avalanche 6, Blues 1

At Denver, rookie Marek Svatos had his second three-goal game and David Aebischer stopped 27 shots to help Colorado win its fifth straight.

Svatos, tied with Washington's Alexander Ovechkin for the rookie goal lead with 25, also had a hat trick Oct. 10 against Calgary.

Patrice Brisebois, Andrew Brunette and Alex Tanguay added goals for the Avalanche. The winning streak is Colorado's longest since a six-game run Jan. 30-Feb. 11, 2003.

Simon Gamache scored for St. Louis.

Stars 2, Wild 1

At St. Paul, Minn., Philippe Boucher's goal midway through the second period gave Johan Hedberg and Dallas another comeback victory.

Hedberg's only gaffe came 6:43 in when he whiffed on a clearing attempt and Randy Robitaille shoved the puck in the net for a 1-0 lead.

In Dallas' previous two games against Anaheim and Detroit, Hedberg replaced starter Marty Turco with the Stars down 3-0 and helped them rally for 4-3 and 6-3 victories.

Jere Lehtinen also scored for Dallas.

Mighty Ducks 6, Kings 2

Anaheim, Calif., Jonathan Hedstrom scored consecutive goals 7 minutes apart in the second period to break open a tie game and completed his first career hat trick in the third period for the Mighty Ducks.

Andy McDonald and Ryan Getzlaf had power-play goals in the first period, Chris Kunitz also scored for Anaheim and Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 41 saves. Craig Conroy and Lubomir Visnovsky scored for Los Angeles.