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Hurricanes rout Devils in Eastern Conference clash

Mar 17, 2007 - 9:21 PM EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- The New Jersey Devils are the last team to miss the playoffs the year after winning the Stanley Cup. The Carolina Hurricanes took a step toward avoiding that dubious distinction at the Devils' expense.

The Hurricanes got two goals from Chad LaRose, scored on three consecutive second-period shots to chase Martin Brodeur and coasted to a 7-2 victory over undermanned New Jersey.

Josef Vasicek contributed a goal and two assists to help Carolina earn a split of the home-and-home series.

"I liked the game we played (Thursday). I thought we had the edge, but their goaltender played great," Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette said. "This was as much of a must-win as there's been all year."

More importantly, the Hurricanes (36-29-8) moved into seventh place in the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of the New York Islanders (34-26-10). New York visits Florida on Saturday night.

"We have four days off now, and some of the teams ahead of us have some games in hand," Carolina left wing Ray Whitney said. "Where we are now and where we'll be four days from now could be totally different."

Playing without injured regulars Brian Gionta, Patrik Elias and John Madden, the Devils fell to 1-5-1 in their last seven home games. They are 12-1-2 on the road since Christmas.

"It's not like we've had four, five games in a row (at home). It's just that today really stood out," New Jersey center Scott Gomez said. "There's not much we can do, we just have to let it go and move on."

Goalless since February 17, LaRose opened the scoring and heralded a rough afternoon for Brodeur when he beat the All-Star goaltender with a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle 4:48 into the first period.

"(Scott Walker) and one of their 'D' were in front, and I didn't want to hit them or get it blocked," said LaRose, who played center for the first time in his NHL career. "I just put it at the net and got lucky."

Brodeur and the Devils escaped the opening period with only a one-goal deficit thanks to defensemen Andy Greene and Paul Martin, who swept loose pucks off the goal line.

But Brodeur was not as fortunate in the second period.

Vasicek doubled the Hurricanes' lead at 3:35 when he deflected defenseman Tim Gleason's slap shot over the goalie's right shoulder for his sixth goal of the season and first in eight games.

Just over a minute later, Ray Whitney's one-time blast from the left faceoff dot found the top left corner of the net.

Rod Brind'Amour capped the flurry at 8:09 with another deflection. The Devils had only six shots on John Grahame when Brodeur was pulled for just the second time this season.

"They went to the net hard. That's how you get tips and you get lucky goals," said Brodeur, who faced only 12 shots. "They did it against us in the third period the other night and they did it again today early in the game."

"The opportunity was there to get Marty out and put Scott (Clemmensen) in and maybe change the momentum a little bit," Devils coach Claude Julien added. "(Brodeur) didn't have any chance on any of those goals. He didn't even have a chance to make a save on any of those goals."

Rookie David Clarkson got New Jersey on the board 2 1/2 minutes later with his first career goal, beating Grahame with a wrister from the left circle.

But LaRose answered at 16:58 and Scott Walker and Gleason added power-play tallies in the third period to extend the lead to 7-1. The seven goals were the most allowed by the Devils at home since a 7-5 setback to Pittsburgh on October 7, 1999.

"It doesn't happen often here," Gomez said. "We know we're better than that. ... Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong."

Clarkson also picked up an assist on Travis Zajac's goal with 6:37 to play that capped the scoring.