NEW YORK, 25 January 2004 — Martin Brodeur made 21 saves to post his league-leading 10th shutout of the season as the New Jersey Devils blanked the Montreal Canadiens 2-0 in National Hockey League play in East Rutherford on Friday.
Brodeur matched his single-season career high for shutouts, the Devils third in the past seven games.
Rookie Scott Clemmensen picked up one of the shutouts and Brodeur had the other two, giving him 74 in his career.
Brodeur is now five away from tying Chicago’s Tony Esposito for the modern-day record with 15 in a single season.
“I knew I wouldn’t get many shots and these are the kind of games where you have to really focus,” Brodeur said.
“We played very well defensively, but you have to be just a sharp on nights like this as you have to be when you’re facing a lot of shots.”
Brodeur was sharp in the third period, when he had to make a couple of tough saves, but he had little work in the first two periods, which were dominated by the Devils. Patrick Elias, with a short-handed marker in the first period, and Grant Marshall tallied for the Devils.
Jose Theodore made 22 saves for the Canadiens, who lost for the first time in six games.
In other action, Marty Turco turned back 33 shots for his fourth shutout of the season, giving the Stars a 2-0 win over the St Louis Blues in Dallas.
Turco picked up his 16th career shutout as the Stars continued to rebound after a poor start to the season.
Dallas is 9-4-4 in its last 17 games and is back in the hunt for a Western Conference playoff spot.
Aaron Downey and Philippe Boucher netted for the Stars, who have won three of their past four games.
Dallas was out-shot 33-20, but killed off six St. Louis power plays, when most of the shots were taken.
Chris Osgood made 18 saves for the Blues, who have numerous injuries and have been struggling.
St. Louis is just 5-9-4 in its last 18 games after a sizzling start to the season.
In Sunrise, Donald Audette scored a pair of power-play goals to give the Florida Panthers a 4-1 win over the Washington Capitals.
The Capitals lost their fifth straight road game just hours after they traded star forward Jaromir Jagr to the New York Rangers for Anson Carter.
Washington is also expected to dump more player salaries before the March trade deadline as the under-achieving Capitals remain near the bottom of the overall NHL standings despite having one of the league’s highest payrolls.
Byron Ritchie and Juraj Kolnik also scored for the Panthers, who signed the 34-year-old Audette as a free agent one week ago.
Audette picked up his 500th career NHL point in the game. Joel Kwiatkowski scored for the Capitals, who lead only the lowly Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL standings.
In Raleigh, Trent Hunter scored the winning goal late in the second period to lift the New York Islanders to a 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Justin Papineau and Michael Peca also scored and Hunter added two assists to give the Islanders their third win in four games.
Sean Hill and Justin Williams, with his first goal since being acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, replied for the Hurricanes.
In Anaheim, Vaclav Prospal scored three goals in the third period and added an assist as the Mighty Ducks beat the Minnesota Wild 6-2.
Niclas Havelid assisted on four of the Ducks goals as Anaheim scored five times in the third period to pull away for the win.
Anaheim out-shot Minnesota 47-11, including 24-2 in the final period.
