Pens can't solve Brodeur
PITTSBURGH — The 13th season of Martin Brodeur's remarkable career just might turn out to be his best.
Brodeur set a career high with his 12th shutout of the season, stopping 31 shots in the New Jersey Devils' 1-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night.
"Some games you have a feeling that there's not going to be many goals scored, just by the way the game is played," said Brodeur, who has twice as many shutouts as anyone in the league. "Tonight I think you could see right from the get-go, everybody had their opportunities but there were no goals. We got one early in the second, so we just try to keep it tight. We are used to playing games like that and I thought we played well with the lead."
Brodeur has 92 career shutouts, third on the career list behind George Hainesworth (94) and leader Terry Sawchuk (103).
It was the second time this season Brodeur blanked Pittsburgh, which lost for the third time in four outings since having a 16-game point streak snapped.
"Brodeur was again phenomenal," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "There were three or four times the puck went through him but he just got a little piece of it and we couldn't get that break. You need some breaks and we didn't get the breaks tonight."
New Jersey didn't have all that many quality chances against Pittsburgh's Marc-Andre Fleury, who made 24 saves himself in his first start in eight days since allowing six goals in a loss to the New York Islanders. But Jamie Langenbrunner converted the only chance New Jersey needed 33 seconds into the second period.
His 21st goal came on the power play off a backhand pass from Scott Gomez.
Langenbrunner ripped a slap shot from the high slot through traffic past Fleury. Patrik Elias picked up the second assist on the play.
New Jersey completed a 10-3 February with the victory, which fell on the day of the NHL's trade deadline.
The Penguins made five trades earlier in the day in an effort to close the gap with the Devils — and hold off teams chasing them to secure a playoff spot. The deals involved seven players and three draft picks.
Veteran winger Gary Roberts, the most notable player Pittsburgh acquired, did not play but was in attendance after arriving in Pittsburgh late in the day.
