DEVILS 101

Once again, Ilya Kovalchuk and Patrik Elias came through when the New Jersey Devils needed most Friday night.

After blowing a 2-0 lead against the Anaheim Ducks, Kovalchuk and Elias scored against Jonas Hiller in the shootout to lift the Devils to a 3-2 victory over a red-hot Anaheim team that is 14-3-4 since Jan. 1. The Ducks nearly had the win in overtime, but an apparent goal by Ryan Getzlaf was nullified after video review showed Getzlaf kick the puck past New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur.

The Devils are now 10-3 in shootouts this season.

New Jersey has been equally hot, with Friday's triumph its seventh in the last nine games.

“It was a big win,” Devils coach Pete DeBoer said. “Obviously, we would have liked to have done it in regulation, but because it’s a Western Conference team it doesn’t matter how. We needed to win. It wasn’t our best game, but we found a way and that’s critical this time of year.”

Adam Henrique's 15th goal of the season at 1:25 of the second period gave the Devils a 1-0 lead. Alexei Ponikarovsky made it 2-0 at 10:56 of the second before Corey Perry's 29th of the season at 18:08 halved the New Jersey lead.

Former Devil Sheldon Brookbank forced overtime at 17:47, scoring his first goal in 167 regular-season games.

But that's where Anaheim's luck ran out. First Getzlaf's goal was disallowed and then Kovalchuk and Elias got started.

Kovalchuk scored on the first attempt of the shootout against Hiller, but Teemu Selanne converted on Anaheim's first chance. Zach Parise was denied by Hiller and Corey Perry fired wide on Brodeur.

Elias then gave the Devils the lead when he beat Hiller, putting the game on the line with Getzlaf getting a return engagement against Brodeur, who kicked out his pad and gave the Devils the victory. Brodeur made 36 saves in the game.

Brodeur is now 8-3-1 in his last 12 starts. Over that span, his goals-against average is 1.80 and his save percentage is .928.

“He was great,” DeBoer said. “He was our best player.”

“He was on top of his game tonight,” Zach Parise told Tom Gulitti of the Bergen Record. “Big saves. I felt like he had a few big ones in each period and in overtime too when we were scrambling a little bit and then he was really good in the shootout again. He was the best player on the ice in my opinion tonight.”

Devils shuffle lineup – The Devils added wingers Nick Palmieri and Eric Boulton to the lineup for Friday's game. Stephane Veilleux and Cam Janssen were the scratches.

Devils Pete DeBoer told The Record's Tom Gulitti that he is looking for Palmieri to fill the role of a fourth-line right wing.

“We need Nick to come in and play that role,” DeBoer said. “We don’t need a top six, power-play forward right now. We might need him in that role down the road, but right now we need him as a guy that comes off the bench with energy, that’s hard to play against, that’s hard on the puck, a lot like (Steve) Bernier and (Alexei) Ponikarovsky have done for us. That’s what we’re looking for out of the guys we’re inserting in those roles.”

It was Palmieri’s first game in the NHL since Jan. 14 in Winnipeg. He was called up from Albany (AHL) on Monday.

“For me, it’s just about working hard and doing the little things right—protecting the puck, using my body and being effective,” Palmieri told Gulitti. “Obviously, in a fourth-line role, that’s the main goal—just to make sure that you’re putting pressure on the other team and making it hard on them to get out of their zone and being a physical presence out there.”

Zajac update – Center Travis Zajac is supposed to test his sore left Achilles in the next day or so.

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