Devils' Sweet Rally Ends On A Sour Note

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http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?level_...33&page=5998981

By TOM GULITTI

Staff Writer

OTTAWA - A little bit of bad luck? Sure.

Still, the one point the Devils came away with from their 4-3 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night was probably all they deserved - if that.

"Got a point that I didn't think we were going to get when the game started," Devils' coach Pat Burns said.

They were not sharp in the first period for the second game in a row, getting outshot, 14-5, and falling behind, 2-0. They rallied to tie it on goals from Jamie Langenbrunner and Sergei Brylin in the second period and took the lead after Christian Berglund scored 6:39 into the third.

Berglund took a feed from Jiri Bicek at the blue line and split the Senators' defense and moved in alone on goaltender Patrick Lalime, who attempted an aggressive pokecheck. Berglund calmly moved the puck to his backhand and deposited it in the empty net behind the fallen goaltender.

But that's when the bounces, a poor decision, and the Devils' impotent power play combined to undo their hard work.

First, Shane Hnidy's pass was tipped by teammate Martin Havlat and went in off John Madden just 27 seconds after Berglund had given the Devils the lead. Then in overtime, after defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky was caught deep in the offensive zone trying set up the winning goal for New Jersey, the Senators came back and scored on the resulting three-on-one rush 3:10 in.

Mike Fisher was credited with the winner, but Havlat did most of the work, carrying up the right wing, cutting to the middle around Devils defenseman Scott Stevens, and firing a shot that Fisher deflected past goaltender Martin Brodeur.

By reaching overtime, the Devils avoided losing consecutive games in regulation for the first time this season, but they still have just one victory in their last four games (1-2-0-1) and are winless in their last three on the road (0-2-0-1). Conversely, Ottawa has just one loss in its last 16 games

"We're just not lucky," Brodeur said. "The goals they scored, a lot of them were deflections and pucks that went off my [teammates]. It's just a matter of working hard and making the breaks on our side."

The Devils were divided on Tverdovsky's decision to join the rush and leave Stevens as the only defenseman back in overtime. Though they earned a point by losing in overtime, they didn't want to see the Senators, a conference rival, come away with the extra point by winning the game.

"You've got to try not to give up too much," Stevens said. "A three-on-one is a little too much to give up."

"You just have to be sure you have two guys back," Tverdovsky admitted.

Tverdovsky lamented not shooting before passing toward Patrik Elias in front. The puck was waist high, however, and there was no way the struggling Elias - no goals in 11 straight - could handle it.

Ottawa's Zdeno Chara collected the loose puck and passed to Havlat to start the rush that produced the game-winner.

"We had the point so why not go for two points?" Elias said. "What's the point of sitting back and just trying to get one point?" But as Brodeur said, "If you trade chances with a team that has a lot of talent, you're going to get burned."

The Devils had two power plays in the final 10 minutes of regulation but could not net the go-ahead goal. They went 0-for-3 on the man-advantage and are scoreless their last 26 opportunities.

It was the first time in seven games the Devils scored more than two goals without getting an empty-netter, but Joe Nieuwendyk (19 games without a goal) and Elias remained mired in their respective slumps. Burns tried playing them together in the third period - Elias moving back to left wing from center with Turner Stevenson on the right side - but that didn't work.

"I just threw that together mid-way there to get something going a little bit more on the offensive," Burns said. "The puck seemed to be following Patrik around."

But, it's still not going in the net.

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I gotta think Elias is on his way out of it.

His head is up and he's really on everything he can get to -- even before it gets to him. This is the pride in his game that's so important to the way he plays.

And, oh, Tom???

Devils' fans will take the awesome pass he centered to Brylin for an assist any day. And I'm sure Patty will too.

It looked like it was in the net to me.