Philadelphia - The New Jersey Devils entered tonight's meeting with Philadelphia as the lowest scoring team in the NHL, also ranked 28th on the power play.  They left the City of Brotherly Love with seven goals, five on the power play, tying a team-record, in their 7-3 win.  Zach Parise, who, reportedly, will be added to the Eastern Conference All Star roster, snapped a 9-goal drought with two marks and Johnny Oduya had the first multi-point game of his career, as the Devils pounced on every opportunity the Flyers gave them, eventually knocking goalie Antero Nittymaki out after he allowed his 5th goal on 19 shots.  He earned his first regulation loss this month after going 6-0-1.

The Devils finished with 36 shots on goal, converted 5 of 8 power plays, winning their fifth straight over the Flyers after losing the initial contest back in October. 

They are now 15-1-1 in their last 17 regular season games with their divisional rival.

With the win, New Jersey recaptured sole possession of first place in the "No room for error" Atlantic Division.  The other four teams are still within seven points of the division-leading Devils with one more game left until the All Star break.

Philadelphia took the early 1-0 first period lead at 2:53.  Mike Richards and Mike Knuble assisted on Daniel Briere's 20th of the season.

That lead last just over three minutes afterJeff Carter committed an interference penalty.  It led to a goal by defenseman Oduya, only his second this season.  In fact, he tied Travis Zajac with a career-best three assists tonight.

I could sit here and discuss every Devils goal with you, but that would take a while.  I hope that someone youtubed the goals and I just add them sometime tonight or tomorrow.  It will make my life easier and yours a lot happier.  I will continue with the game story though, no worries, be happy.  I sure am after the Devils came through with an easy victory.

It's a good thing head coach Brent Sutter inserted Oduya's name into the lineup.

In the second period, Oduya completed a beautiful play reminiscent of Scott Niedermayer.  He skated down the entire ice and backhanded a sweet pass to Patrik Elias, who easily tapped the puck past Shitty-maki (there I said it).

During the intermission interview, Elias compared Oduya to Bobby Orr.  Yes, that's right.  His words.  I said Nieds.  He said Orr.  You can obviously see that Oduya had an impressive performance.  No lies.

Elias later tallied in the third period, only 89 seconds after Parise completed his second of the contest, which finalized the scoring at 7-3.

Elias now has 12 goals and Parise a team-leading 18 for the Devils, who scored seven goals for the first time since Feb. 7, 2006, when they defeated Tampa Bay 7-4.

It was that kind of night for New Jersey, which relied on scoring for a change.

This allowed goaltender Martin Brodeur a rare off night.  Brodeur had not allowed more than two regulation goals since Dec. 29, a span of eight games (this month), before making 24 saves on 27 shots.

While the Devils dominated Philly, their rival New York Rangers blanked Atlanta 4-0 and the Islanders enjoyed a road matchup with Carolina 6-3.  The Pittsburgh Penguins, who entered Tuesday with 58 points, were idle after last night's 6-5 shootout loss to Atlanta.  With Sidney Crosby officially shelved for 6-8 weeks due to his high ankle sprain, they needed it.

I think the Penguins will continue to compete despite Crobsy's absence, obviously placing more pressure on Evgeni Malkin and his teammates now more than ever.

Jamie Langenbrunner and Dainius Zubrus, a former Flyers draft choice no less, scored the other two goals for New Jersey, both in the opening frame.

Parise' latter of two resulted from a beautiful forecheck by Langs, Zajac and Parise.  Zajac finally slithered the puck past a diving Flyers player, where Parise buried it.

In the opening and very physical frame, David Clarkson suffered a cut to his eye during his fight with Steve Downie.  Ray Parillo reviewed it in his post game story.

“There were two fights in the first period, with the Devils' David Clarkson suffering the most damage as blood ran down the side of his face from a cut alongside his left eye after a bout with Steve Downie. Clarkson kept whiffing with punches while Downie laughed at him.

"I was laughing at him because he jumped me at the end of a shift," Downie said.”

Mike Rupp battled Ryan Cote in the other duel, a less bloody and more typical fight.  Both guys got off several punches before the officials intervened.

Notes:

The Devils franchise record for power play goals was established by the Colorado Rockies, who once had six on Feb. 19, 1980.

Tom Gulitti noted that they also scored five power-play goals on Jan. 4, 1996 against Dallas at the Meadowlands and Oct. 29, 1986 at Pittsburgh.

Oduya raised his point total from nine to 13 after tonight.  He also has a +8 in the month of January and is currently one of the Devils hottest blueliners.

Congratulations:

Elias notched three points, including and surpassing his 600th career point. 

Earlier this season, Brodeur earned his 500th career win at Philadelphia.  After tonight, he has 520 regular season victories and is 31 away from tying Patrick Roy's all-time record.

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