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Brodeur ties record in Devils win

Apr 4, 2007 - 4:45 AM EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- On a night when the focus was on his general manager-turned coach, the ever-overshadowed Martin Brodeur added yet another piece to his cadre of greatness.

Brodeur made 22 saves to tie the NHL single-season record with his 47th win and gave Lou Lamoriello a victory in his return behind the bench, a 2-1 shootout triumph over the Ottawa Senators.

Brodeur equaled the record established in the 1973-74 season by Bernie Parent of the Philadelphia Flyers, whom the Devils visit Thursday. There is a chance Parent could be in attendance for the contest.

"Through the years I got to appreciate how hard it is to get to that 47 plateau," Brodeur said. "Ironically, I tied him up with (a shootout). It's different than before. But it's still a lot of wins. You have to play a lot of games.

"The next one will break it, but how long it's going to stick, I don't know. (Vancouver's) Roberto Luongo is head-to-head with me. We'll see how he does."

In the shootout, Ray Emery matched Brodeur save-for-save through the three regular rounds and got an edge from Antoine Vermette in the fourth, but Jamie Langenbrunner scored to extend it. Mike Comrie gave Ottawa a leg up again, but Sergei Brylin tallied to force another round.

Brodeur denied Mike Fisher in the sixth, and then John Madden, who scored the Devils' regulation goal, slipped a backhander through Emery's pads.

"He's been the backbone of the franchise since I've been here, and long before that," Madden said of Brodeur. "It's very deserving for him."

The game was scoreless until a 21-second span midway through the third period, when the teams traded goals. Madden struck with 9:45 left, giving the Devils the lead with a deflection of defenseman Brian Rafalski's slap shot from the right point. Rafalski has assists in seven straight games.

Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson countered 21 seconds later, using a screen by Jason Spezza to sneak a slap shot from the left faceoff circle past Brodeur's short side.

"Coaching change and Marty's going for the win record, playoff-type game," said Ottawa's Dany Heatley, who set up the goal. "He made some big saves tonight on us and a couple of big ones in the shootout too."

"We lost in a shootout, but I don't consider that something other than (it being) appealing to the fans," Ottawa coach Bryan Murray said. "We knew with the coaching change, the guys would be really playing attention, and we matched it, I thought."

Lamoriello on Monday inserted himself behind the bench for the second straight season, shockingly replacing Claude Julien. Julien had guided the Devils through a rash of injuries to their top-level players but managed to keep them in first place in the Atlantic Division and second in the Eastern Conference.

But Lamoriello, who is also the team president and CEO, opted to make a late-season coaching change for the second time in seven seasons. Under strikingly similar circumstances in the 1999-2000 season, Lamoriello replaced Robbie Ftorek with Larry Robinson, who guided the team to the Stanley Cup championship despite coaching just the final eight regular-season games.

"It was a little different," Lamoriello said. "Watching the game from a little different position than you've been watching the last 70 games, it takes a little while to get used to.

"I couldn't be more pleased. The focus was there from the locker room right onto the ice, on the bench, and in between periods. If something didn't go the way you'd like to see it, it didn't matter. The focus was there.

The Devils and Ottawa entered the game with identical 47-24-8 records. The Senators entered the night five points behind Northeast Division-leading Buffalo Sabres, but saw their chance at the title go by the wayside when the Sabres defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-1.

New Jersey won for the fifth time in six games and posted its third straight home win after losing five straight at the Continental Airlines Arena. The Devils can clinch the division by gaining a single point over their final two games. The final regular-season game in the Meadowlands is Sunday against the New York Islanders.