When Martin Brodeur went down with a bicep injury on Nov. 1, not even the most devout New Jersey fan could have envisioned that the Devils would reach the All-Star Game on top of the Atlantic Division.

But they are.

The Devils leap-frogged the New York Rangers for first place in the division with a 5-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens at the Prudential Center on Wednesday night. The Devils followed up a road trip on which they won their last four games by dominating the Canadiens, who lost for the second time in as many nights.

"It's a credit to the players, staying with it and being strong," Devils coach Brent Sutter said. "Being mentally strong allows you to handle adversity on the ice. We've dealt with adversity in the right way. Guys in that room have been through a lot, and they don't seem to get rattled."

GM Lou Lamoriello said Brodeur skated Wednesday for the first time since the injury and is on target for a March 1 return. In the meantime, the Devils have gotten outstanding goaltending from Scott Clemmensen, who made 26 saves to improve to 19-9-1 in Brodeur's absence.

"I don't feel like I have to win games by myself," said Clemmensen, who started the season in the minors and has taken the starting job from Kevin Weekes. "I don't think the team feels they have to work harder to compensate for me, either. The team has confidence in me and I feel if I just play strong, I can let them do the rest."

The Devils did just that against the Canadiens, who fell to 1-10-1-1 in their last 13 visits to New Jersey.



"The last 30 minutes against Atlanta was better," Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau said of Tuesday's 4-2 loss to the Thrashers. "Tonight we struggled for 60 minutes, but that's the way the Devils play. They make you work hard, they make you push yourself. Give them credit, that's the way they play. We've seen this for the last 15 years. We didn't have enough people respond."

Defenseman Paul Martin put the Devils ahead 11:52 when he stepped out of the penalty box just in time to take Patrik Elias' breakaway pass and beat Carey Price between the pads.

Travis Zajac banged in a rebound at 6:18 of the second period for a 2-0 lead. After Montreal's Josh Gorges made it 2-1 at 13:56, Martin set up fellow defenseman Johnny Oduya for a slap shot that beat Price at 18:20.

Zach Parise made it 4-1 at 2:05 of the third with a slap shot that was deflected into the net by a Montreal defender. Matt D'Agostini scored a power-play goal for Montreal at 7:46, but Elias put the puck into the empty net with 55 seconds left for a shorthanded goal.

"We played very solid here tonight," Sutter said. "We played well. We were able to score at right times. We did a lot of good things tonight."

Islanders 2, Ducks 1 | Video

The Islanders will not go 0-for-2009. Anaheim spent the night pounding away at goaltender Yann Danis, but the third-stringer stopped 39 of 40 shots and made early goals by Kyle Okposo and Kurtis McLean stand up to give New York its first win of the new year.

The Islanders had been 0-7-1 since beating Florida on Dec. 31 and were 0-3-1 on their five-game homestand before holding off the Ducks, who've lost six of eight.

Okposo beat Jean-Sebastien Giguere with a slap shot from the top of the left circle 2:38 into the game. McLean, a 28-year-old rookie recalled earlier this week, got his first NHL goal at 14:35 when he blasted a rolling puck between Giguere's pads from inside the right circle.

"I'm not sure if he thinks he should have had it or not, but I think it should have went in," McLean joked.

At that point, a very upset Giguere was replaced by Jonas Hiller.

"It's just the way it went," said Giguere, who will start for the Western Conference at Sunday's All-Star Game. "Goalies can win and lose games for you in this League."

The rest of the night belonged to Danis, who's assumed the starting role for now with Rick DiPietro gone for the season and Joey MacDonald out with a groin injury. He allowed only Bobby Ryan's power-play goal at 16:45 of the second period. The Ducks outshot the Isles 40-14, dominated New York physically, held the Islanders shotless over the last 31 minutes except for a 150-foot clearing pass in the third period that was on goal — but couldn't score again.

"We had more than our fair share of chances," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "We only get one goal on a power play. He (Danis) made a lot of great stops."

Isles coach Scott Gordon, who has been critical of Danis' play at times, agreed.

"He was excellent tonight," Gordon said of Danis, who earned his first NHL victory since 2005-06, when he played with Montreal. "One of the things I thought he did a great job with tonight was controlling rebounds. He battled, and it was good to see."

Danis got a vote of confidence before the game when the Islanders opted not to claim Dany Sabourin on waivers from Edmonton.

"He didn't say they were sticking with me," Danis said of Gordon, "but he did say they passed on both (Dany) Sabourin and (Curtis) Sanford."

Flyers 5, Thrashers 3 | Video

Atlanta tried hard but still couldn't find a way to beat the Flyers. The Thrashers overcame a 3-0 deficit in the third period, only to see Mike Knuble break the tie with 7:48 remaining and add an empty-netter as Philadelphia beat Atlanta for the 13th consecutive time.

Antero Niittymaki survived three Atlanta goals in a 6:07 span of the third period and made 28 saves to improve to 12-0 lifetime against the Thrashers. He is one of only two active goalies with a perfect mark in at least 10 decisions against one team; Detroit's Chris Osgood is 17-0 lifetime against Tampa Bay.

"I got a little sloppy in the first 10 minutes of the third period and they got back in the game," Niittymaki said after the Flyers improved to 25-4-6 all-time against Atlanta. "But Knuble had some big shots for us."

Knuble scored the winner on a "busted play" coming through the neutral zone.

"Mike (Richards) slipped the puck through the crowd to me," Knuble said. "I just got one quick shot. It wasn't a great shot, but it bounced right back to my stick and I knew I had an open net."

Until Atlanta's rally, the Flyers appeared to be on their way to an easy victory.

Scott Hartnell and Darrell Powe beat Kari Lehtonen with backhanders for a 2-0 lead after one period, and Randy Jones ended a 17-game goal drought when he picked up a rebound off the glass and scored 1:44 into the second.

But Atlanta got on the board when Eric Perrin picked up a loose puck and beat Niittymaki with on a slap shot from the right circle at 4:42 of the third period. Ilya Kovalchuk scored on a wrist shot at 9:48, and Chris Thorburn tied it 1:01 later when he stole the puck from Jones and scored on a breakaway.

"We made a commitment there in the third to get the puck to the net," Thorburn said. "You see what can happen when we can do that."

The loss ended Atlanta's three-game winning streak.

"It's unfortunate," coach John Anderson said. "We hit a few posts, missed on a round of breakaways. We were creating chances. It's disappointing. I thought we played well enough at least to get a point."

Lightning 5, Sabres 3 | Video

Tampa Bay is going into the break on the upswing. The Lightning got goals 34 seconds apart by Steve Eminger and Steve Downie early in the first period and beat Buffalo on a night when big guns Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis were held without a point.

"It's nice to get other guys scoring," Tampa Bay interim coach Rick Tocchet said after his team won for the second time in three nights to improve to 6-3-0 in its last nine games. "Eighty-two game schedule, you've got to have that if you're going to win."

Lecavalier and St. Louis had produced 14 goals and 22 assists in Tampa Bay's previous 12 games but were blanked by Buffalo.

"Vinny and Marty carry this team all year," said center Jeff Halpern, whose goal at 13:52 of the second period proved to be the game-winner. "Even if they don't get points or score, I thought those guys tilted the ice for us at times when the other team was pushing. I think the way our team is playing these last few weeks, we're getting goals as a team."

After the goals by Eminger and Downie gave the Bolts a 2-0 lead, the teams combined for six goals in a wild second period. Derek Roy scored twice and Ales Kotalik once for the Sabres, but Lukas Krajicek, Halpern and Cory Murphy had goals for the Lightning. Murphy's goal with 5.8 seconds left in the period restored the Lightning's two-goal lead.

"I don't know if we deserved to win tonight," Kotalik said.

The Sabres may have lost more than the game. Defenseman Henrik Tallinder left with what could be a serious shoulder injury.

"Henrik's not good," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "We'll probably get him back to Buffalo and that will be looked at, but he's going to be out for a good period of time probably."

Stars 4, Panthers 1 | Video

Mike Ribeiro finally owns an NHL hat trick. After 11 two-goal games, Ribeiro scored three goals for the first time in his career — capping a natural hat trick by putting the puck into an empty net with 36 seconds left as Dallas won at Florida.

"This is my first one," said Ribeiro, who is in his ninth NHL season. "I've had a lot of two goals in the first period and couldn't finish ever. It's a tough thing. I'll take it. Even at the end, when I threw the puck in, I thought it was going to bounce at the side of the net."

Ribeiro put the Stars ahead to stay at 19:28 of the second period with his first goal. He was alone at the left side of the net when Matt Niskanen's point shot deflected off James Neal and came to him for a slam dunk.

He made it 3-1 at 3:45 of the third, beating Tomas Vokoun on a breakaway, then wristed the puck into the empty net for his hat trick.

"This is a big win going into the break," he said. "It feels good after all these NHL games to finally get a hat trick, but the two points are the most important thing."

The Panthers dominated the first period and got the only goal when Karlis Skrastins beat Marty Turco with a backhander at 12:41. Mike Modano's power-play goal at 12:33 of the second got the Stars even.


"We felt like we kind of pushed them back on their heels," Modano said of the Stars' play in the second period. "We were a little more efficient with what we were doing."

The Panthers fell to 5-1-3 in January and reached the All-Star break tied for ninth in the Eastern Conference, one point out of a playoff spot.

"We've picked up points in eight straight games," coach Peter DeBoer said. "It's a disappointing loss but definitely not devastating. We're still right in the thick of things and we'll look at it as the glass half full with where we're at in the season and here we have a chance to get to."

The Stars enter the break in 12th place in the West, four points out of a playoff berth and well behind where they thought they'd be after advancing to the conference finals last spring.

"We know what we are capable of doing consistently and it’s good to get the win headed into a four-day break," Turco said. "This isn’t where we thought we'd be at the break, we have been inconsistent, but we have something we can control in the second half and we know the challenge is ahead of us."

Blues 2, Blackhawks 0 | Video

Chicago's recent offensive problems helped send the Hawks to their second home loss in three days. Chris Mason wasn't severely tested in a 21-save performance as the Blues shut out the Hawks at the United Center for the first time since last March 12.

The Hawks, who lost 4-1 at home to Minnesota on Monday, generated little offense against the injury-riddled Blues as they fell to 14-4-5 at the United Center. Chicago has just 14 goals in its last seven games.

"It seems like all our games lately are a lot closer than that stretch we had [early on]," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "We expect those types of games being basically like that from here on out. We have to get used to finding ways to win those kinds of games. Low-scoring, tight-checking affairs are how we have to approach it because that's what we should expect."

Though they're last in the Western Conference, the Blues are just nine points out of a playoff spot despite a season-long rash of injuries. They went 3-0-1 in their last four games before the break.
"The team is playing with confidence," said defenseman Jeff Woywitka, who scored the Blues' first goal. We're working hard now and getting some bounces — we're making our own bounces. As a team, we're all pulling in the same direction."

St. Louis outshot Chicago 16-3 in the first and scored on the 16th shot -- Woywitka's power-play shot from the point that went over Cristobal Huet's pad and into the net.

After a scoreless second period, the Hawks thought they had tied the game 2:46 into the third when Matt Walker poked a rebound of his own shot under Mason and into the net. However, the play had been whistled dead before the puck crossed the line, and the goal was disallowed.

Keith Tkachuk made it 2-0 during a 4-on-4 at 7:28 when he stuffed a shot between Huet's pads from the edge of the crease.

A shot by Chicago's Martin Havlat hit the post at 10:33, and Mason made a point-blank save on Dave Bolland during a Chicago power play with 4:25 left.

"They had a couple good shots, but it was hard to stay in the game early," Mason said. "We kept pressuring them because we knew they were going to come out hard in the third period."

The Hawks hope the All-Star break will help reinvigorate some of their struggling scorers, including Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp, who've struggled in the past couple of weeks.

"Everybody is not going to be able to score at a regular rate all year long," Quenneville said. "Everybody has stretches where the pucks are going in for them and [then] sometimes you have a hard time buying a goal."

Kings 6, Avalanche 5 | Video

The offensively challenged Kings scored five times in the second period and managed to hang on to head into the break with back-to-back road wins.

Alexander Frolov scored a power-play goal 1:25 into the second period, Jack Johnson connected 29 seconds later and Jarrett Stoll made it 4-1 at 5:01 as the Kings KO'd slumping Peter Budaj, who's lost five of his last six starts but was 6-1-1 against them in his career — including 3-0-0 this season.

After T.J. Hensick scored a power-play goal at 13:31 to make it 4-2, the Kings scored two more quickies against Andrew Raycroft. Frolov got his second of the night at 14:11, and Dustin Brown made it 5-2 just 21 seconds later.

"We saw we were capable of scoring tonight and everyone tried to put the puck on the net and make something happen," Frolov said.

Then it was the Kings' turn to sweat. Chris Stewart scored with 7.2 seconds remaining in the period to make it 5-3, and goals by Brian Willsie at 5:53 of the third and Cody McLeod at 7:36 made it a one-goal game with more than half the period remaining.

"We have to learn how to play when we lead in the third period," Frolov said.

Willsie's goal came after a giveaway by goaltender Jonathan Quick and got the Avs and their fans back in the game.






"It would have been a pretty nice assist if the guy was on my team," Quick said. "Unfortunately, he wasn't. he made a nice play and nice shot. The team bounced back. They responded after they scored that fifth goal and they played great defensively. That kind of took a little bit of pressure off me."

Colorado had numerous chances to tie, but Quick made several nice saves to preserve L.A.'s win. The Avs pulled Raycroft with a minute left to no avail. Ryan Smyth's shot in the waning seconds was wide of the net.

"It's a great game for a rookie goaltender to deal with what's going on: the emotion in the game, the opposing team jamming the net and whacking away at him," Kings coach Terry Murray said after his team moved within six points of a playoff berth. "He'll grow from this."

The Avs, now 12th in the West and four points out of a playoff berth, failed in their effort to sweep the season series from the Kings for the first time since moving from Quebec in 1995.

"It was a crazy game," Avs forward Wojtek Wolski said. "The puck just seemed to bounce for them early and they got a couple of goals really quickly and that kind of put us down. But we seemed to find a way to get back into it. We had so many chances there at the end that we probably should have put one in."

Flames 5, Blue Jackets 4 (SO) | VIDEO

The NHL's worst shootout team finally found a way to win one. Todd Bertuzzi scored in the third round of the breakaway competition and Miikka Kiprusoff stopped all three Columbus shooters to give the Flames their first shootout win of the season.

Calgary became the last team to win a shootout — the Flames had lost their only previous one. They are 9-16 all-time — only Ottawa (8) has fewer victories.

After the first four shooters failed to score, Bertuzzi, sidelined for five games with a hip flexor injury, came down the left side, cut across the front of the net and beat Steve Mason with a high backhander. Kiprusoff got his pad on Jakub Voracek's shot for the win.

"I'm not a shooter to begin with, so I try to be as creative as I can," said Bertuzzi, who's just 3-for-15 lifetime in shootouts. "I tried to take a backhand (shot) and roofed it on the other side."

R.J. Umberger had a pair of first-period goals for the Blue Jackets. Michael Cammalleri continued his hot streak for the Flames with two more goals, including a blast from the slot at 12:25 of the third period that tied the game 4-4. Rick Nash had put the Jackets ahead 2:41 into the final period by beating Kiprusoff on a shorthanded breakaway.

The victory stretched the Flames' lead over second-place Edmonton in the Northwest Division to nine points at the break and sent them home on a positive note.

"It's huge," Bertuzzi said of the victory. "They're the ones who have to fly three hours home on a sour note. We're happy with where we're at. We still can take it another level up, and we know that. We're going to continue to push forward."

The point gave the injury-plagued Blue Jackets a 1-1-1 mark on their three-game trip through Western Canada, though they blew third-period leads in Tuesday's 4-3 loss at Edmonton and to the Flames.

"The way the guys gutted it out was an impressive performance," said center Manny Malhotra, who set up two goals. "To let those points slip away (Tuesday) night was a disappointment, but three out of six (points on the road trip) isn't bad work."

The Jackets, who've never made the playoffs, hit the break two points behind Vancouver, Edmonton and Anaheim, who are tied for the last three spots in the West.

"We're right in striking distance," Malhotra said. "It's right there. We know the level we're capable of playing. With the addition of the guys coming back from injuries, that's going to add a lot of intensity and adrenaline to our lineup, so we look forward to that. We know just how close we are. We know the position we've gotten ourselves to at this point. It's going to be a lot of fun coming down the stretch."


Material from wire services and team online and broadcast media was used in this report.