Newark, NJ- John Grahame stopped Dave Bolland in the third round of shootouts to give the fading New Jersey Devils a much-needed 3-2 victory over the visiting Calgary Flames.
The game went silently through the first period, but in the second the Devils (9-4-1) got on the scoreboard first. Grahame stopped the puck behind his own net for Lubomir Visnovsky after a Flames dump in. Visnovsky found at center ice Brian Rolston, who was fresh from the New Jersey bench. Rolston split the Calgary defensive pairing of Adam Pardy and Matt Smaby and fired a snap shot through the legs of Flames goalie, JS Giguere. The seventh of the season for Rolston came at the 3:04.
The Devils lead would be no more at the 12:19 mark of the second. Ryan Smith out dueled Patrik Berglund on a draw and won the puck to Bolland. Rolston was able to block the offering of Bolland, but the puck went back to the Flames player. Bolland fired another attempt on goal and this one got through to Grahame, who made a wonderful left leg save. But his rebound drifted to a wide open Jamie Langenbrunner, who easily put the puck home for his fifth of the season.
Like previous games for the Devils, things go from good to bad to worse quickly, and the same story rang true tonight. On the next shift after the Flames (6-5-2) tied the score, Valtteri Filppula was called for hooking. Ryan Smith would make the Devils pay when he tipped in a Sheldon Souray shot from the high slot. The power play goal gave the Flames a 2-1 edge at the second period buzzer.
With 6:24 remaining in regulation, Berglund would extend his point-scoring streak. Berglund jumped on a missed shot from Shane Doan and snapped a shot over a sprawled Giguere. For Berglund, his 10th goal puts him tied on the top of the leagues goal scoring list, and his 19 points stands alone at top the leader board.
The Devils were granted a late third period power play but came up empty and the game played through overtime without deciding a winner.
Thus it was on to the shootout. Smith got all iron his attempt and first attempt for the Flames. Doan was denied by Giguere and Langenbrunner the same by Grahame. Martin Erat put the Devils second attempt up and under the crossbar to give the Devils a 1-0 shootout lead. That set the stage for Grahame to rob Bolland with a quick catching glove.
The Devils say home to face the Los Angeles Kings (8-6-1) in two days.
SWAMP THINGS- Boyd Gordon served game 2 of his suspensionGrahame stopped 33 shots, Giguere 2913,924 was the attendanceVisnovsky maintains his 1 point lead in the defenseman scoring raceRandy Jones (healthy) and David LeNeveau (3rd goalie) were the scratches.
