After the New Jersey Devils' 45th shot on net tonight, the final buzzer rang, and both teams were definitely exhausted.  Unfortunately, goaltender Kevin Weekes, who spelled Martin Brodeur in net for the first time since Dec. 10, seemed uncoordinated, and allowed three first-period goals in the Devils' first loss in a week.

It was that kind of night for New Jersey, who fired 20 shots in the third period to the Bruins' one, yet only manufactured one goal, a measly five percent.

In their second game in 24 hours, Dainius Zubrus’ doorstep tally opened the scoring 4:26 into the opening frame.   Patrik Elias and Paul Martin assisted on Zubrus’ seventh goal, his first in 13 games.

Trailing 1-0, Boston fired back with three first-period goals in 5:48, including one with 0.6 seconds left in the frame.

P.J. Axelsson and Dennis Wideman scored even-strength tallies to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead.  Wideman’s shot deflected off Devils’ defenseman Colin White’s stick and past Weekes.

With 45 seconds left, Zdeno Chara committed a slashing infraction, which gave New Jersey the only power play of the first period.  However, after a clearing attempt, Marco Sturm collected the puck and skated in for a breakaway on Weekes, who initially stopped his attempt.  Sturm gathered the puck in the corner and stuffed it in between Weekes’ legs with 0.6 seconds on the clock, for a 3-1 edge.

An unlikely source helped close the gap for New Jersey.

Defenseman Johnny Oduya’s shot from the point headed wide, before it deflected off Bruins’ blueliner Zdeno Chara and into the net.  Arron Asham and David Clarkson assisted on Oduya’s first of the season.

However, with one minute remaining in the second, Savard took advantage of the sleepy Devils and knocked home his 10th of the season on a beautiful feed from P.J. Axelsson, who finished with a goal and two helpers.

The Devils unloaded a machine gun’s worth of ice pucks at Tim Thomas over the last 20 minutes of play.  Yet, they came away with Travis Zajac’s lone power play effort from the left circle.  Mike Mottau and Dainius Zubrus assisted on Zajac’s seventh, which cut the lead to 4-3.

The Devils managed 19 other shots on goal during the final period, en route to a season-high 45. 

Thomas made save after save with his unusually large pads (for an average-sized goaltender), as the Devils poured on a barrage of shots, in hopes of netting the equalizer.  They were unsuccessful.

Moreover, with a huge scramble in front of the net, Boston center Glen Metropolit saved the day for the Bruins.  Metropolit seemingly made the save of the day, when he threw his body in the crease and stopped a Devils’ shot from tying the game.

With a few seconds left in regulation, Zach Parise could not lift backhand before final buzzer sounded.  During the final seconds and after the final horn, Brian Gionta and Zdeno Chara continued their David and Goliath battle.  After Gionta crashed into Chara on the boards, Chara seemed to get the last laugh, with a few shots to the face, before the referees broke it up.

While the Devils ended their two-game winning streak (at home), the Bruins continued their three-game run after an 0-5-1 drought.

In the meanwhile, Weekes, who definitely looked rusty, made 21 saves in the loss.

Brodeur, who has a unique butterfly/hybrid style, was voted by the fans as the Eastern Conference starting goaltender.

Head Coach Brent Sutter will join Brodeur as an assistant for his team's first-half success.

The Devils have definitely “resolved” their special team’s woes from earlier this season.  They have now scored a goal on the man advantage in three consecutive games.  But, they allowed another shorthanded tally, their sixth through the first half of the season.

They did manage to kill off all three Bruins' power plays and the last 11 straight, after allowing at least one in 11 of the first 12.

With the win, Boston improved to 21-16-4.  They host Carolina on Tuesday night.  the Devils' loss dropped them to 23-15-3.  The Devs return to their downtown arena for another matchup with Buffalo, after defeating them on Dec. 28, 2-1, behind Parise's lone shootout goal.

That was before the injuries started to kick in for New Jersey, who remained without Jay Pandolfo, Karel Rachunek, and Cam Janssen, who are recovering from their respective injuries. Janssen's separated shoulder happened during the preseason and he has been skating with the team and close to 100%.

Notes:

This was the first time all season that the Devils allowed three goals in the first period of action.  They had previously permitted three goals in the middle and final frames, on four separate occasions, on Oct. 18, 27 and Dec. 18, 29.

Derian Hatcher was not suspended by the league for the biting incident on Friday night.  According to TV replays, Hatcher and Zajac were tangled in a fight after the whistle blew.  Zajac exited with a bloody, bitten finger, which was, for some reason, in Hatcher's mouth.  I am not sure if he did this intentionally and the Devils originally believed that they had credible evidence on tape to prove this.  However, just as Hatcher denied biting Zajac, the league dissented with the Devils and agreed with the Flyers' forward.

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