For the second straight game, the New Jersey Devils couldn't find a way to score a goal. But, this time, Martin Brodeur was able to keep the other team off the board.
Brodeur stopped 28 shots and both Ilya Kovalchuk and Zach Parise scored shootout goals to help the Devils defeat the Colorado Avalanche, 1-0, tonight at the Prudential Center. The win gave New Jersey 87 points this season, and extended their lead over the seventh-place Ottawa Senators to five points.
"We got two points. That's all that matters," Kovalchuk told Tom Gulitti of The Bergen Record. "Next game (Saturday afternoon) against Pittsburgh is a big game, a divisional game and we've got to score next game."
Kovalchuk scored his seventh deciding shootout goal of the season, breaking a tie for the NHL record set by Adrian Aucoin during the 2009-10 season. His attempt, the first in the shootout, beat Avalanche goalie J.S. Giguere glove side for his 10th shootout goal of the season.
"It's extra points, so it's important, definitely," Kovalchuk told Gulitti. "But, if I wouldn't go first, then somebody else would get the deciding goal. So, it's nice that Pete wants me to go first and set the tone and that's what working lately."
Parise beat Giguere stick side, going from the forehand to the backhand and back again to beat the 34-year old netminder.
Kovalchuk said he knew moving Giguere was key to beating the goalie in the skills competition.
"On that shootout, I knew he was looking real tired there in the end," he told Gulitti. "He pulled that veteran move there with his pads (strap to get a delay in the third period). We just want to make him move a little bit and I think that's what's working."
Giguere stopped 33 shots throughout regulation and overtime.
New Jersey moved to 11-3 in shootouts this season with the win. They'll take on the Pittsburgh Penguins Saturday afternoon at the Prudential Center.