San Jose, CA- Spot starting goalie Jhonas Enroth made 32 saves to help the New Jersey Devils to a 3-2 triumph over the San Jose Sharks Wednesday night.
Enroth, whose start even surprised GM Tim Scholl, was called into action when both Devils goalies, Kari Lehtonen and John Grahame, came down with some-sort-of-simulated- flu- bug and wasnt able to start. Lehtonen was well enough to serve as the backup.
As for the game itself, the Devils (8-1-1) took advantage of a tired Sharks team, who played last night in Washington, DC. The Devils opened the scoring 9:24 into the game. After cycling the puck down low, Brian Rolston located Shane Doan between the circles. Doans attempted wrist shot was blocked by the Sharks Jason Spezza, but the puck deflected to Patrik Berglund at the right circle dot. Berglund, the leagues leading point scorer, easily sent it home for his 7th of the season. For Berglund, the point extended his point-scoring streak to nine games.
Later in the first period, Wojtek Wolski would get his first of the year. Wolski took an outlet pass from Martin Erat, and went one-on-one with Sharks defender Tomas Kaberle. Using the D-man as a screen, Wolski snapped a laser over the glove of Johan Hedberg to put the Devils up two with 1:17 remaining in the first.
In the second, Mason Raymond would get his name in the scoring column on the season. Valtteri Filppula did most of the dirty work by battling in the corner for a loose puck. The center skated around the net and found Raymond open to the left of the net. Filppula hit him with a flat pass which Raymond was able to one-time into the net at the 6:12 mark.
The Sharks (2-5-3) were able to wake up just over two minutes later. Nikolai Zherdev picked up his first of the season from Zach Parise and Tomas Fleischmann.
With 2:09 left in the game, the Sharks made things very interesting. A wrist shot from Dwight King alluded Enroth, who must have lost the puck in the crowd, to get the Sharks within one.
But Boyd Gordon and his last-minute defensive mates were up to the challenge, and the Sharks never got a good look at the net and Enroth.
The Devils will stay in San Jose tonight before moving tomorrow to Denver, where they will face the Avalanche (5-4-0) on Friday night.
SWAMP THINGS- Chris Campoli and Jeff Tambellini were the healthy scratchesDavid Spina was returned to Lowell to make room for RaymondPairing John Carlson and Tom Gilbert were on the ice for all three Devils goals and none of the Sharks goals..Devils had four power play attempts, Sharks had noneRyan Wilson destroyed Milan Michalek in a first-period fightKaberle and Brent Seabrook fought to a draw in third14,599 was the attendance.
