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Brodeur, offense stymie Stars

Oct 23, 2008 - 3:24 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

NEWARK, New Jersey (Ticker) -- For the New Jersey Devils, the best way they could ignore any potential distraction from Sean Avery was to watch Martin Brodeur inch closer to history while getting production from their offense.

Brodeur made 21 saves and John Madden scored twice in a 72-second span in the second period as the Devils cruised to a 5-0 victory over the Dallas Stars on Wednesday.

Brodeur turned aside five shots in the first period and eight in each of the final two sessions en route to his 98th career shutout - second this season - and 543rd win. The four-time Vezina Trophy winner now trails Hall of Famers Terry Sawchuk (103 shutouts) by five and Patrick Roy (551 victories) by eight for first place on the all-time lists.

"It's a lot," Brodeur said of his shutout total. "I'm just fortunate to play on a team that cares about playing well defensively."

Captain Jamie Langenbrunner, Zach Parise and David Clarkson also tallied for the Devils, who scored a total of 10 goals in their first five games of the season.

"It's nice," Brodeur said. "When you get on the board early, it makes it a lot easier to play a game. Offensively, we were great, and defensively, we were great also. It was kind of a great combination to play a team that you don't see too often, and for us, these are big points."

Travis Zajac and defenseman Andy Greene recorded two assists apiece for New Jersey, which was playing at home for the first time since a season-opening win over the New York Islanders on October 10. The Devils, who have netted nine goals over their last two games, saw 11 different players notch a point on Wednesday.

"We stayed with our game for 60 minutes," New Jersey coach Brent Sutter said. "We made the most of our scoring opportunities. Marty made a couple of big saves at key times. It was a real solid win here tonight."

Marty Turco allowed three goals on 17 shots before being replaced by Tobias Stephan, who made 10 saves for Dallas.

"It's embarrassing more than anything," Turco said. "I'm not sure what needs to be done. For me, I've just got to give these guys a chance, and I didn't do that for them."

The contest marked the return of Avery to New Jersey. The agitator last was seen here as a member of the New York Rangers, annoying Brodeur during last season's Eastern Conference quarterfinals but did nothing of the sort in this one.

"Marty has accomplished a lot," Madden said. "I don't think that (facing Avery) ranks up there in the top 25, for that matter. Just getting the shutout and getting one step closer to history is what I'm thinking about."

"I thought they did a good job," Sutter added. "We didn't want it to become a distraction."

For the Stars, their problems go deeper than any of Avery's antics on the ice. Avery did not take any costly penalties despite exchanging some shoves with Brodeur and Clarkson throughout the game, but none of it sparked Dallas, which allowed at least five goals for the fourth time this season.

"You need your goaltender to make saves," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "You need your special teams to work. If you give up five goals on 20 shots, you're not going to win. You could be the 1980 Oilers, you're still not going to win."

"(We're) just really looking flat-footed again in some of our coverage and in some of our ability to absorb the rush and neutralize that," Dallas' Mike Modano added. "It's been pretty ineffective in the games we lost. It's pretty evident, and it's bad starts again and bad changes. Things seem to be very much out of the norm for us."

The Stars used Avery's emotional return to New York on Monday to post a 2-1 victory, getting their second win after Turco allowed a power-play goal just 58 seconds into the contest. The veteran goaltender once again allowed an early goal in this one but was not as sharp afterward.

A former Star, Langenbrunner struck just 1:59 into the contest. Dallas defenseman Trevor Daley was unable to clear the puck from behind the net, and it was pried loose by Parise along the boards.

Parise left it for Langenbrunner, who skated into the right faceoff circle and fired a backhander that went off Modano's skate and past Turco.

Brodeur did not face a shot until defenseman Stephane Robidas unleashed a slapper at 8:53 of the first. One his best saves of the night was a pad stop on Avery from point-blank range during a power play early in the third, which came after he dropped down and denied Mike Ribeiro's breakaway attempt with his pad with 14:57 remaining.

"(Ribeiro) made a great move," Brodeur said. "I got real lucky. He opened me up. I stayed with him as long as I could. I went down and I opened my five-hole. My stick was dragging a little bit. When he slid it back, he didn't slide it enough and it just kind of hit the top of my pad."

Prior to those saves, the Devils took advantage of miscues by Turco and his teammates in the second period.

Defenseman Paul Martin gained possession in the neutral zone and fed Madden, who sneaked between blue-liners Daley and Matt Niskanen before beating Turco with a wrist shot from the left circle at 9:05.

Madden made it 3-0 shortly thereafter thanks to a turnover by Brenden Morrow.

The Stars' captain coughed up the puck to defenseman Bryce Salvador, who fired a wrist shot from just outside the blue line that Turco stopped. But the rebound bounced out to the bottom of the left circle, where Madden grabbed and buried it to complete his first two-goal effort since January 20 against Toronto.

New Jersey increased its lead in the third as Parise scored on a backhander at 9:49 and Clarkson fired a slapper from above the slot just inside the left goalpost 53 seconds later.

"It felt good to get a goal," Clarkson said. "As a team, it was a big boost, and everybody played well."