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Bergeron, Stuart help Bruins finally beat Devils

Dec 15, 2006 - 3:07 AM BOSTON (Ticker) -- Patrice Bergeron and defenseman Brad Stuart did their part to help the Boston Bruins finally notch a win over the New Jersey Devils.

Bergeron scored twice and Stuart netted the winning goal as the Bruins snapped a five-game losing streak against the Devils with a 5-3 victory.

The game was anything but a carbon copy of the contest between the teams on Saturday, when the Devils dominated the Bruins en route to a 5-1 victory.

"We had the puck behind the net more, we had the puck down low more and we were able to put pressure on them," Boston coach Dave Lewis said. "We did what we wanted to do all night long, but the big thing was, we were better with the puck."

"I don't think we played the way we wanted to play all night," New Jersey center Erik Rasmussen said. "I think every time we got something going and got some momentum, we took a penalty that put them on the power play. We felt like we were on our heels all night killing penalties and never got any flow going at all."

Stuart snapped a 3-3 tie less than 2 1/2 minutes into the third period. With Boston on the power play, Stuart zoomed in from the point and banged the rebound of Wayne Primeau's shot past goaltender Scott Clemmensen at 2:17 for his sixth of the season.

"He's an intelligent player," Lewis said of Stuart. "He's clever and can find open ice. I think you are seeing that right now."

Boston went 3-for-7 on the power play against the Devils, who entered with the third-ranked penalty-killing unit in the league.

Brad Boyes had a goal and two assists while Petr Tenkrat also scored for the Bruins, who received a 26-save performance from Tim Thomas.

After Boyes opened the scoring just 19 seconds into the game, Bergeron doubled Boston's lead 66 seconds later. During a power play, Bergeron took a pass from Marc Savard at the bottom of the left faceoff circle and drilled a shot past Clemmensen.

"It was a nice way to start the game, but don't forget, they did tie it," Lewis said. "But we were able to stay in control with ourselves and with the things that we wanted to do. That was important."

"You look at the scoreboard after that goal and there's 19 minutes left in the first period, but it's good because you get everyone involved and you get a good team like Jersey backpedaling," Boyes said. "That gives you some jump. We came out of the gate hard, and that's what you want to keep doing."

Bergeron, who added an empty-netter, has five goals and 12 assists in his last 13 games.

Captain Patrik Elias led the Devils, who have lost two straight, with a goal and an assist. Jamie Langenbrunner and Michael Rupp also tallied and Clemmensen finished with 40 saves in his first appearance since October 21.

"I didn't feel comfortable out there until maybe the third period," Clemmensen said. "You could probably tell because of the rebounds for most of the game. You're just trying to get a feel for the puck. There's a lot of situations that you haven't seen before, so you're kind of reacting on instinct.

"Not only are you rusty, you're not comfortable, and when you're not comfortable, you're not confident. You just try to trick yourself to keep things simple. It didn't help that we got in trouble early."

Elias extended his points streak to eight games, a stretch in which he has five goals and eight assists. Rupp's tally was his first in 14 contests.

The Devils, who are a sparkling 11-2-1 at home, fell to 6-9-1 on the road.