Devils goalie Brodeur credited with goal

Martin Brodeur now has the most goals of any goaltender in NHL history.

Brodeur became the first goaltender to be credited with a second regular-season goal when he was the last New Jersey Devils player to touch the puck before the Carolina Hurricanes backpassed it into their own net during a delayed penalty in the first period of the Devils' 4-1 win Thursday night at Raleigh, N.C.

Brodeur, who now has three total goals to Ron Hextall's two, made 17 saves to earn the 665th victory of his career. Jeff Skinner's third-period power-play goal cost Brodeur his 121st career shutout.

"So he broke the record? It doesn't surprise me," Devils center Travis Zajac said. "He's the best goalie that ever played."

The Devils were on a power play when Carolina's Patrick Dwyer was hooked by defenseman Marek Zidlicky as Dwyer broke into the New Jersey zone. With a delayed penalty call in effect, Dwyer fired a shot that was stopped by Brodeur, who deflected the puck to the right corner. Carolina's Jordan Staal gained control and slid a pass back toward defenseman Tim Gleason at the left point, but he missed Gleason, and the puck went off the boards all the way back into the vacant Carolina net to give New Jersey a 1-0 lead at 3:54.

"I kind of made a poke check on Dwyer coming in. I got tangled up and I looked at Staal -- he made a pass and I wasn't sure if there was a guy there so I went for the pass," Brodeur said. "After that, when it cleared the zone, I kind of looked behind me. I wasn't really looking [at the puck]. When the puck went in the net, I was like, 'What happened there?' I didn't know we had a delayed penalty or anything. So it was kind of a surprise.

"We got lucky on that one, but we'll take it. Definitely nice to get credit for it. It's a good break, since we haven't got any breaks of late."

Brodeur was playing for the first time since Feb. 21; he missed a month with a back injury.

"It's a big lift for us," Devils coach Peter DeBoer said of Brodeur's return, and the goal. "Marty's our starting goaltender, and he's the best of all time. It's a luxury to have him back there for a lot of different reasons, and it's nice to have him back."

Brodeur was credited with a goal against the Philadelphia Flyers on Feb. 15, 2000, when he was the last player to touch the puck before it went into an empty net. He shot the puck into an empty net in a playoff game against the Montreal Canadiens on April 17, 1997.

Hextall is the only other goaltender to score more than once; he had one goal in the regular season and one in the playoffs while playing for the Flyers.

Brodeur is the second goaltender to be credited with a power-play goal. Evgeni Nabokov, then with the San Jose Sharks, had one at the Vancouver Canucks on March 10, 2002.

It was the 13th time in NHL history a goaltender has been credited with a goal. Ironically, the same teams were involved in the next-most recent one: Carolina's Cam Ward received credit for a goal when New Jersey's Ilya Kovalchuk backpassed the puck into his own net during a delayed penalty on Dec. 26, 2011.

"Last year, I scored in my own net, so it’s nice," Kovalchuk said. "A little payback."

GOALS BY NHL GOALTENDERS
REGULAR SEASON	DATE	OPPONENT
Billy Smith, NYI	Nov. 28, 1979 at Colorado	NYI 4 @ COL 7	WATCH
Ron Hextall, Phi.	Dec. 8, 1987 vs Boston	BOS 2 @ PHI 5	WATCH
Chris Osgood, Det.	Mar. 6, 1996 at Hartford	DET 4 @ HFD 2	WATCH
Damian Rhodes, Ott.	Jan. 2, 1999 vs New Jersey	NJ 0 @ OTT 6
Martin Brodeur, N.J.	Feb. 15, 2000 vs Philadelphia	PHI 2 @ NJ 4
Jose Theodore, Mtl.	Jan. 2, 2001 at NY Islanders	MTL 3 @ NYI 0
Evgeni Nabokov, S.J.	Mar. 10, 2002 at Vancouver	SJ 7 @ VAN 4 (PPG)
Mika Noronen, Buf.	Feb. 14, 2004 at Toronto	BUF 6 @ TOR 4
Chris Mason, Nsh.	Apr. 15, 2006 vs Phoenix	PHO 1 @ NSH 5	WATCH
Cam Ward, Car.	Dec. 26, 2011 vs New Jersey	NJ 2 @ CAR 4	WATCH
Martin Brodeur, NJ	Mar. 21, 2013 at Carolina		WATCH
PLAYOFFS
Ron Hextall, Phi.	Apr. 11, 1989 at Washington	PHI 8 @ WAS 5	WATCH
Martin Brodeur, N.J.	Apr. 17, 1997 vs Montreal	MTL 2 @ NJ 5