The New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur became the NHL's all-time leader in the number of minutes played during his team's 2-1 shoot-out win against the Boston Bruins on Friday. In doing so, he overhauled the record set by a fellow Quebecer and a fellow goaltender. Brodeur passed Patrick Roy's mark of 60,235 minutes early in the second period before ending the game with a career total of 60,275.
"That was nice," the 37-year-old said. "You can tell it's a real hockey place here, and even though they're not Devils fans or Marty Brodeur fans, I think they recognise some of the stuff and what's going on in hockey. "Around the league, when you reach milestones people have a lot of respect, even though after it's over they're going to boo you for sure." New Jersey's Zach Parise opened the scoring in the second period before Blake Wheeler made it 1-1 in the third.
Parise and Jamie Langenbrunner scored for the Devils in the shoot-out after Brodeur had sent the game into overtime by denying Marc Savard in the final seconds on a point-blank shot. "I was trying to battle real hard and be competitive," said Brodeur, who also has more career wins than any other NHL goalie. "I think with this team, with their shots, there's always a guy going to the net and so they have a lot of traffic.
"I just wanted to make sure I was in good position all the time. I'm making the first save, guys are there to recover rebounds and that makes my life a lot easier." Brodeur has long been recognised as one of the greatest goaltenders in NHL history, with a resume that includes three Stanley Cups and an Olympic gold medal from the 2002 Winter Games. New Jersey's win, sealed when Langenbrunner skated in and fired a shot past Tuukka Rask in the third round of the penalty-shot tie-breaker, ruined Boston's four-game winning streak.
In other NHL action, the Nashville Predators saw their seven-game winning run brought to an end with a 3-1 loss to the St Louis Blues. Paul Kariya, Brad Boyes and David Backes scored for St Louis while Dave Scatchard netted Nashville's consolation goal. Joe Pavelski scored the decider in a shoot-out to lift the San Jose Sharks to a 5-4 win over the Edmonton Oilers. Patrick Marleau had three goals and an assist for San Jose to see the game tied at 4-4 at the end of regulation.
The Anaheim Ducks made it three straight wins with a 3-0 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 28 shots while Teemu Selanne scored two power-play goals as Anaheim ended the Blackhawks' eight-game winning streak. Goals in the third period from Sean Bergheimer and John Tavares helped the New York Islanders edge past the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 and Chuck Kobasew netted three times for the Minnesota Wild, who broke a 3-3 deadlock at the end of the second period to beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-3.
Olli Jokinen and Jamie Lundmark each registered a goal and an assist for the Calgary Flames as they inflicted a third consecutive loss on the Detroit Red Wings, 3-0, while the Atlanta Thrashers scored five unanswered goals in the third period to record a come-from-behind 6-4 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. Niklas Hagman and Phil Kessel had two goals each for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 6-4 win over the Florida Panthers, who suffered their third loss in a row.
Tim Connolly had two goals and two assists for the Buffalo Sabres in their 4-2 success over the Philadelphia Flyers, the Phoenix Coyotes beat the Dallas Stars 5-2 and the Tampa Bay Lightning thrashed the New York Rangers 5-1. * With agencies
