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Gionta's two goals help Devils edge Lightning

Nov 25, 2007 - 5:04 AM By Althea Pashman PA SportsTicker Contributing Wrier

TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- Brian Gionta helped Martin Brodeur inch closer to a personal goal.

Gionta scored twice as the New Jersey Devils posted a 3-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.

David Clarkson scored his second goal of the season and Zach Parise assisted on two of the tallies for New Jersey, which completed a sweep of its four-game road trip.

"We're playing some pretty good hockey and now we're winning the close games," Devils coach Brent Sutter said. "Again, you get on a road trip like this, and just chip away. You take it a game at a time. We played some pretty good hockey on this road trip early."

The Devils, who have won a season-high four consecutive games, were ably helped by Brodeur, who won his 503rd career game. He is 48 victories shy of tying Patrick Roy for most wins all-time by a netminder.

"As a team I think we battled real hard to keep it a win for ourselves, but it definitely was a tough one," Brodeur said.

Trailing 1-0 in the second period, Gionta scored with a two-man advantage when his wrist shot hit goaltender Johan Holmqvist's left skate, redirecting the puck into the left side post before trickling in to tie the game.

Seven 1/2 minutes later, Gionta scored again to give New Jersey a 2-1 advantage.

On a two-man rush, Gionta received a feed from Travis Zajac and wristed the puck past Holmqvist for his seventh goal of the season.

"We had two people in (our) zone and our high man, (Jan Hlavac) ended up coming through the neutral zone to give up a 2-on-1," Lightning coach John Tortorella said.

The Devils increased their lead 42 seconds later on another odd-man rush.

John Madden raced in along the left boards before faking a shot and passing to Clarkson, who beat Holmqvist to give New Jersey a 3-1 lead.

Brodeur withstood a power-play goal by Jason Ward 36 seconds into the final period before stopping 14 more shots in the session.

"Brodeur was huge for us the whole game and obviously in the third," Sutter said.

The three-time Vezina Trophy winner finished with 34 saves.

The Lightning nearly tied the score with less than five minutes left when on a power play, Ward fired a shot the hit Brodeur before trickling through the netminder's pads. However as the puck slid to within inches of the goal line, Devils blue-liner Mike Mottau dove over Brodeur, just missing it before knocking the goalpost off instead.

"I definitely had an opportunity to get a second one, and I've got to capitalize on those opportunities," Ward said. "I've done that in the past, and that's my area (in front of the net) where I score my goals. I had a chance to tie the game up and didn't do it, so I've got to get it done next time."

The exchange was originally called a goal, but the referee reversed the decision after looking at the video tape.

"I'm not worried about the call," Tortorella said. "The call was right on the money. I'm just concerned about this hockey club. You play that hard and you don't get any reward. We've just got to make sure we keep it together here, just stay the course."

Vincent Lecavalier, the NHL's leading scorer, tallied his 16th goal just 35 seconds into the second session and Holmqvist knocked aside 18 shots for the Lightning.