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Brodeur, Parise star as Devils breeze past Hurricanes

Oct 7, 2006 - 1:43 AM RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Martin Brodeur continues his climb toward the top of the record book.

Brodeur posted his 81st career shutout and Zach Parise scored twice as the New Jersey Devils began their 2006-07 season with a 4-0 triumph over the defending champion Carolina Hurricanes.

In search of the all-time record for most wins, Brodeur made 29 saves to tie Hall of Famer Terry Sawchuk for third place with 447 victories. Patrick Roy, who will be inducted into the Hall later this year, is first on the list with 551.

"It's kind of nice," Brodeur said. "That's the direction I want to go. It's nice to be in that category."

In stopping six shots in the first period, 12 in the second and 11 in the third, Brodeur pulled even with Alex Connell and Tiny Thompson for fifth place in shutouts. His next blanking will tie him with Jacques Plante for fourth.

Brodeur made his biggest save of the third period with 6:18 to go, denying Craig Adams from the doorstep to preserve the shutout.

"You don't do shutouts by yourself," Brodeur said. "A lot of guys helped. They had a few quality chances at the end. For the most part, when we play 5-on-5, we play a really solid game."

Brodeur received all the support he needed 26 seconds into the contest as Parise beat Conn Smythe Trophy winner Cam Ward for his first goal. Six minutes into the middle period, Parise gave New Jersey a 4-0 cushion by completing his second career two-goal performance.

"It's a good start," Parise said. "I was hoping to get off to a good start."

Jamie Langenbrunner and new captain Patrik Elias also scored, Brian Gionta collected three assists and Scott Gomez set up a pair of tallies for the Devils, who improved to 18-7-7 in season openers.

"We certainly made the smart decisions," said coach Claude Julien, who was making his debut behind the Devils' bench. "We stayed away from high-risk plays. I thought we did a good job in our own end. Marty made the big saves again when we needed them. Special teams are good, so a good start for us."

Ward made 26 saves for Carolina, which has scored a total of two goals in its first two games.

"I think a lot of times, goals come from just flat outworking people," Hurricanes center Kevyn Adams said. "We need to have more of that jam in our game and give ourselves a chance around the net."

"We were on the short side of skating and battles all night," said Carolina's Peter Laviolette, who coached his 300th career game. "We were that way in the preseason and we need to change that. Our strength has to be our work ethic, our skating and our resiliency on the puck, and right now, those are weaknesses."

Hoping to exact a bit of revenge for their five-game series loss to the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference semifinals last spring, the Devils took control of this one in the first 20 minutes.

Parise got things started early, tipping defenseman Colin White's wrist shot from the left point past Ward.

"It was important," Parise said. "We jumped on them right away. ... We came out pretty fired up and pretty excited. We wanted to bring it to them all night and pressure them all over the rink."

"That first goal on our first shift was certainly a big bonus for us," Julien added.

Langenbrunner made it 2-0 with 8 1/2 minutes to go in the period, deflecting blue-liner Brian Rafalski's one-timer from the top of the right faceoff circle by the netminder from the doorstep.

"It's always tough when they score on a deflection," Ward said.

One day after being named the seventh captain of the Devils since the team relocated from Colorado, Elias converted a power play with 2:28 remaining for a three-goal cushion.

"Since I've been here, that's happened twice where they've knocked us out (of the playoffs)," Gionta said. "We had a good team last year, but we're not happy unless we win the Cup. To get knocked out by them, it's nice to come back here and get revenge a little and start the season off nice."

Parise completed the scoring at 6:01 of the second, knocking a deflected pass from Gomez past Ward.