Tuesday, Mar. 13 9:00pm ET
Six different New Jersey players score in victory
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BOX SCORE
DENVER -- No longer the kings of clutch-and-grab, the New
Jersey Devils are looking more comfortable playing the fast-paced
style familiar in the West.
|  | | New Jersey's Jason Arnott and Brian Rafalski (28) celebrate after Rafalski first-period goal.
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Six different Devils scored as New Jersey tied a franchise
record with its eighth consecutive victory, beating the Colorado
Avalanche 6-3 Tuesday night.
The Devils have scored 40 goals during their streak and lead the
NHL with 241. They scored 251 goals all of last season.
"Maybe we just like the West Coast offense," New Jersey center
Scott Gomez said. "I think everyone still thinks of the (Stanley
Cup) team in '95. We've still got some guys like that, but we got
guys that can score. It makes it that much better."
Colorado, the NHL's top team with 101 points, was overmatched by
the Devils for the second time this season. New Jersey beat the
Avalanche 6-1 on Dec. 5.
"When we played them in New Jersey, we were bad, and tonight we
were not better," Colorado coach Bob Hartley said. "It's a game
to forget, no doubt about that. The Devils were better than us in
every department."
Gomez had three assists for the Devils, who pulled even with the
Ottawa Senators (89 points) for the top spot in the Eastern
Conference.
The power play proved to be a big difference against Colorado as
New Jersey converted its first three chances with a man advantage.
"Killing penalties, we had a hard time," Avs defenseman Ray
Bourque said. "They moved it well, had some traffic and scored
three power-play goals. That was the difference in the game."
The Devils scored twice on the power play in the first period
and then pushed the lead to 5-1 with three goals in a six-minute
span of the second.
John Madden's goal from the slot at 10:30 capped the flurry and
prompted Hartley to pull goalie Patrick Roy, who
stopped eight of 13 shots.
Roy gave up four goals on 22 shots in two periods against New
Jersey in the first meeting.
"There are a few things I haven't been happy with lately and I
know I have to work on them," Roy said. "When a goaltender is not
on his game, it looks as bad as it did tonight."
Although Roy surrendered three goals on long shots, Colorado was
collectively delinquent defensively and failed to record a point
for the first time in 12 games (8-1-1-2).
The Avalanche trailed 5-2 at the end of the second and
desperately tried to push the pace in the final 20 minutes.
Joe Sakic's 41st goal of the season cut the lead to 5-3 with
8:35 remaining, but New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur made an
acrobatic save during a five-on-three Colorado advantage and Patrik Elias
scored into an empty net with 57 seconds left.
"Don't just put our sticks out there and accept that we have
won seven in a row and we let one slide," New Jersey defenseman
Ken Daneyko said. "We said we want to play our best and see how we
measure up."
Brodeur finished with 34 saves and reached 35 victories for the
fifth consecutive season.
Greg de Vries beat Brodeur in the game's first two minutes, but
New Jersey took a 2-1 lead on power-play goals by Jason Arnott and
Randy McKay.
Bob Corkum and Scott Stevens scored 4:10 apart to start the
second before Madden ended Roy's night with an unobstructed blast
from 20 feet.
"I would call this handling the Avalanche," New Jersey coach
Larry Robinson said. "We played extremely well, especially the
first 15 minutes of the second period."
Game notes
The Devils also won eight in a row during the 1997-98. They
were later eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. ... New
Jersey improved to 27-2-1 when leading after two periods and
13-3-1-1 against Western Conference teams. ... Sakic is five points
behind Jaromir Jagr (102) for the NHL scoring lead. Sakic has eight
goals in the last 10 games. ... Roy allowed nine goals on 35 shots
in two games against the Devils this season.
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
New Jersey Clubhouse
Colorado Clubhouse
RECAPS
Philadelphia 5
St. Louis 2
Anaheim 2
Washington 0
Vancouver 2
Detroit 2
Edmonton 5
Tampa Bay 4
Dallas 3
Chicago 0
New Jersey 6
Colorado 3
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Scott Stevens and the Devils score a pair of power-play goals against Patrick Roy.
avi: 782 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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