Devils 5 Flyers 3
NEWARK, N.J. — The New Jersey Devils finally found a way to beat the Philadelphia Flyers.
They just played like the Flyers, tough, physical and a little chippy, too.
Dainius Zubrus powered his way in front and scored off his own rebound with 4:04 to play and the Devils beat Flyers 5-3 on Friday night to even the first-round Eastern Conference playoff series at a game apiece.
“This was huge,” said Devils centre Patrik Elias, who got his third assist on the winner. “Obviously, they’ve got to feel good about coming home with the series tied. They are going to be hard games in there. They play really physical. They feed off the crowd. We just have to stay focused on the job we have to do and we’ll be OK.”
Zach Parise, Colin White, Andy Greene and Ilya Kovalchuk also scored and Martin Brodeur stopped 26 shots to help New Jersey avoid the death sentence of losing the first two games at home in the best-of-seven series.
Aaron Asham, Claude Giroux and Chris Pronger scored for the Flyers, headed home for Games 3 and 4 on Sunday and Tuesday.
Brian Boucher had no chance on Zubrus’ goal, which was his first post-season tally since 2004.
It also allowed New Jersey to beat the Flyers for only the second time in eight games this season.
“I feel good,” Zubrus said. “I feel like we just won a big game. It’s big. It’s huge because we are going into their building and it’s tough place to play and they are a good team. I knew this wasn’t to be going to be easy. We had a tough time against them this season. But if we play our game, I believe in our lineup.”
Zubrus powered his way around the net past defenceman Ryan Parent and sent a shot on goal that Boucher stopped. Parise and Zubrus both swung at the rebound and the puck went into the net.
“We were cycling in their end. Somehow, I had the puck behind the net,” Zubrus said. “I had a half a step on my guy so I thought I could take it to the net. I came on my backhand and tried to shoot it. The puck was right there afterwards. Zach was skating into it. I think he whacked it. I tried to put my stick on it as well. It was a big goal for us.”
Initially, it appeared Parise got the game winner.
“I don’t know,” Parise said. “We scored it, that’s the most important.”
Kovalchuk added an empty-net goal as the Devils won despite giving the Flyers seven power plays.
“They were trying to play more intense, more emotional, more physical, and a few more penalties were a byproduct of it,” Pronger said.
“We need to continue to turn the other cheek and play smart. If they want to take penalties, great, but we know they’ve got a potent power play. We want to keep them off the power play as much as we can. We did a pretty good job today.”
Brodeur kept the score tied until Zubrus’ goal. Brodeur stopped a break-in by Daniel Carcillo with 8:30 to play and seconds later stopped a 10-foot shot by Ian Laperriere off a great setup by Mike Richards.
“I don’t know if I’m satisfied,” Richards said after the Flyers gained home-ice advantage with a split in New Jersey. “I thought we played extremely well. It would’ve been nice to win it, but they played desperate, too. It was just a good hockey game.”
Red Wings 7 Coyotes 4
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Henrik Zetterberg scored three goals, including the winner with 6:06 left, and the Detroit Red Wings beat the Phoenix Coyotes 7-4 on Friday night to even the first-round Western Conference series at a game apiece.
Linemate Valtteri Filppula scored twice and Justin Abdelkader and Pavel Datsyuk added goals for Detroit, which won its 50th consecutive post-season game in which it has scored at least four goals.
Shane Doan, Matthew Lombardi, Wojtek Wolski and Keith Yandle scored for Phoenix.
Game 3 is Sunday in Detroit.
Zetterberg gave Detroit a 5-4 lead when he gathered a rebound off a shot by Todd Bertuzzi and fed it into an open net.
Filppula’s second goal came on the power play with 2:06 to go and put the game away. Detroit outscored Phoenix 4-1 in the third period to avoid an 0-2 playoff hole for the first time since 2003.
Zetterberg completed the scoring with an empty-net goal with 47 seconds left.
Doan scored on a 2-on-1 rush with Vernon Fiddler to tie it at four with 10:36 to play.
Abdelkader stripped the puck from Wolski near the blue-line then beat Ilya Bryzgalov high 1-on-1 for Detroit’s first lead, 4-3, 2:32 into the third.
Abdelkader spent much of the season in the minors and hadn’t played for the Red Wings since Jan. 27. He had three goals in 50 games and hadn’t scored since coming up with two goals on Nov. 11 at Columbus.
The game was tied at three after a frenetic second period in which the teams combined for five goals a 3:58 span, the third-fastest five goals in playoff history.
Zetterberg ended three-plus periods of scoreless play for the Red Wings when he tipped in a pass from Filppula on Detroit’s second power play at 6:27 of the second, tying it at one.
Wolski answered 38 seconds later with his second goal of the post-season. After Howard made a glove save, he put the puck back in play and Wolski got to it first, beating the rookie stick side.
Yandle put home a rebound around after skating around Bertuzzi and beating Zetterberg to the puck to give the Coyotes a 1-0 advantage at 10:23 of the first. It was his second goal of the series.
Fiddler was shaken up with 3:42 to play and left for the locker-room.
NOTES: The record for the fastest five goals in a playoff game is 3:06 in Chicago’s 6-2 victory over the Minnesota North Stars on April 21, 1985. Second is 3:20 in the North Stars’ 6-5 win over Philadelphia on April 29, 1980. ... Datsyuk played in his 100th post-season game.
Sharks 6 Avalanche 5 (OT)
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Devin Setoguchi deflected in a loose puck in front of the net for a power-play goal 5:32 into overtime and the San Jose Sharks rallied to even their first-round series, beating the Colorado Avalanche 6-5 in Game 2 on Friday night.
Joe Pavelski tied it for the Sharks with 31.3 seconds left in regulation, and Setoguchi won it with his second goal of the game with Adam Foote in the penalty for Colorado for interference.
The Sharks avoided dropping the first two games at home for a third straight playoff series. The series shifts to Denver for Games 3 and 4 beginning Sunday night.