• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Brodeur, Devils blank Thrashers

Nov 24, 2007 - 4:13 AM By Phil Foley PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ATLANTA (Ticker) - The New Jersey Devils finally found their way back to the .500 mark.

Martin Brodeur stopped all 22 shots he faced to record his 502nd NHL victory and Paul Martin notched a goal in his return to the ice to lead the Devils to a 3-0 win over the Atlanta Thrashers on Friday.

The 35-year old Brodeur set aside eight shots in the first, six in the second and eight in the third to notch his first shutout of the season and 93rd of his impressive career.

"It's nice," Brodeur said of the shutout. "I think every year you're trying to get one. A lot of goalies have a lot of shutouts this year. I was just trying to join the parade."

"It's not like any of us are really surprised (that Brodeur recorded a shutout)," Devils coach Brent Sutter said. "Marty is Marty. He made key stops at key times. When your goaltender makes key saves like that, it gives you confidence."

Brodeur came up huge in the final period, stopping Pascal Dupuis on a breakaway 11 minutes into the final session.

"He's a winner," Dupuis said. "He's making big saves for his team and they are playing better right now. Marty's a big part of that."

"Yeah, he played well, but we didn't come close to testing him," Atlanta captain Bobby Holik said. "Not enough traffic. We gave him a great opportunity to be good. We just didn't do enough to score on him."

It has been a rough season thus far for the Devils (10-10-2), who began the campaign with nine contests on the road before christening the Prudential Center on October 27.

Thus, it came as no surprise that the Devils struggled to begin the season, posting a 3-6-1 record in their first 10 games.

But New Jersey improved as the calendar flipped to November. The Devils were 5-4-1 in their last 10 games, winning two straight on the road entering their Friday night's contest against the red-hot Atlanta, which had won 11 of 15 after starting the season with six losses.

Brodeur and the Devils, however, grounded the high-flying Thrashers.

"We have been playing great and it carried over to tonight," Martin said. "We have not been giving up too many chances. We need to keep our intensity up and keep making smart plays."

New Jersey's defense was solid, blocking 14 shots and limiting two of the hottest players in the league - Ilya Kovalchuk, who leads the league with 19 goals, and line mate Marian Hossa, who tallied multi-point games in his last six contests - to just four shots.

"It's a solid team effort," Sutter said. "Everyone is on the same page and doing things correctly, playing within the structure of the game we want to play. Everyone is doing things the way they are supposed to. When you have that, you're going to have success."

Two unlikely Devils skaters staked the three-time Vezina Trophy winning Brodeur two a 2-0 advantage.

Rodney Pelley recorded his second NHL goal with a wide-angle wraparound shot from just beneath the right faceoff circle. The shot beat Atlanta netminder Johan Hedberg down low to give the Devils a 1-0 lead at 8:59 of the second period.

After Atlanta defensemen Ken Klee and Tobias Enstrom drew hooking penalties seven seconds apart in the second period, Martin scored for the first time this season and only the 15th time in his NHL career at 16:24 of the second period.

Brian Gionta found Martin's stick with a pass from behind the net. The 26-year old Martin blistered a one-timer from above the left faceoff circle past Hedberg to give the New Jersey a two-goal cushion.

Martin had missed New Jersey's last three games with lower body soreness.

Jay Pandolfo added an empty-net goal with 28 seconds to salt the game.

Jamie Langenbrunner assisted on all three goals for New Jersey, which have won three straight games for the first time this season.

"(The winning streak) is great," Langenbrunner added. "You need to string wins together in this league. We have three wins in a row and four of our last five. It's very important."

"Everything is about winning," Brodeur said. "You win, you feel good. You don't win, you don't feel good about yourself. The atmosphere here is 100 times better than two weeks ago."

Hedberg stopped 24 shots for the Thrashers, who snapped a four-game winning streak.