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Devils start fast in rout of Hurricanes

Feb 18, 2008 - 9:49 PM NEWARK, New Jersey (Ticker) -- Travis Zajac got the New Jersey Devils rolling early on Monday.

Zajac scored just over two minutes into the game against the depleted Carolina Hurricanes as the Devils cruised to a 5-1 victory at the Prudential Center.

The win gives the Devils 73 points and pulled them into a tie with the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens for first overall in the Eastern Conference.

The victory also continued New Jersey's dominance of the Hurricanes this season as it has won all three meetings by a combined 11 goals. The Devils can sweep the season series when the teams meet again at Carolina on February 26.

"If you're going to beat New Jersey, you're going to have to skate with them," Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette said. "They're a skating team, they're quick off the transition. They were quicker to it, they were quick to get their shots off. They were quicker to loose pucks, just a step quicker."

Zajac got things going when he snapped a wrist shot past Carolina goaltender John Grahame with just 2:02 elapsed in the first period. Danius Zubrus and Sheldon Brookbank assisted on the goal.

"Just a chip off the wall, Zubie hit me coming to the middle with speed and I was able to get one left side on Grahame," Zajac said.

Just over five minutes later, Mike Mottau took a pass from Zajac on the power play and beat Grahame to give the Devils a 2-0 lead.

That lead grew to 3-0 early in the second period when Jay Pandolfo tipped in a shot by John Madden at the 1:08 mark.

"(Madden) made a great play, he just waited until he saw an opening," Pandolfo said. "He's been making great passes to me all year long."

Carolina, playing its second full game since captain Rod Brind'Amour tore a ligament in his left knee, finally got on the board when Jeffrey Hamilton beat New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur just over six minutes into the second period. The goal snapped Hamilton's 33-game scoreless streak, dating to November 14 against Tampa Bay.

"It was a hard-fought game and that's the way they play - when they get a lead they sit on it," Hamilton said. "It's tough to crack the armor on them but we'll forget about it."

Any momentum the Hurricanes had was short-lived as defenseman Johnny Oduya scored off assists from Zubrus and Brian Gionta to restore the Devils' three-goal cushion just over four minutes later.

Zubrus and Gionta each finished with two assists.

Zach Parise scored with three seconds remaining to round out the scoring.

"We played hard tonight," Devils coach Brent Sutter said. "We were assertive, we did a lot of good things tonight. I thought our mindset was very good."

Brodeur made 28 saves and improved to 32-19-4 on the season. The veteran, who has made 19 consecutive starts, is 3-0-0 with a 1.00 goals-against average against the Hurricanes this season.

Grahame made 25 saves for the Hurricanes, who entered the contest having won four of their last five games.