Langenbrunner Carries Devils in 3 Straght

A few weeks ago, Jamie Langenbrunner was in the midst of a scoring slump. Then the All Star break happened.

Upon the team’s return, Langenbrunner not only took the opportunity to mock out Zach Parise for failing to score in the Elimination Shootout, but he added some goals of his own, in a huge way.

In Ottawa, Langenbrunner and the Devils maintained their hot streak by controlling the flow of play and dominating time of possession in the Senators end. Langs broke a 1-1 tie late in the 2nd period by bouncing a shot off the glove arm of rookie goaltender Brian Elliott for the eventual game winner. Just 19 seconds into the 3rd period, Langenbrunner added a 2nd and Brendan Shanahan added his second since joining the team, as the Devils won 4-2.

Then Devils then traveled to Boston to take on the 1st place Bruins. 15 minutes in, while on the penalty kill, Langenbrunner broke out with Travis Zajac, and scored on a deflected pass as it tipped off the back of goaltender Tim Thomas. Parise added his 29th in the 2nd period before the Bruins rattled off 3 third period goals. On the ropes and in danger of dropping their first game since being out west against the Ducks, the Devils battled as hard as they could to break the Bruin’s trap.

With 1:45 remaining in the 3rd period, Brian Gionta out skated a defenseman for the pukc, threw it on net where Patrick Elias deflected it with his skate and in for the game tying goal and his 22nd of the season, his highest total since 03-04 where he scored 38 goals. Langenbrunner would again step up to be the hero in overtime as the Devils won their 7th straight game as he out battled two defenders, including Zedno Chara for the winner.

His magical week was not done as he was called upon again in Friday’s contest against the Pittsburg Penguins. Down 2 in the 3rd period, Shanahan scored on the power play to pull within one. Langenbrunner found the puck on hit stick and a clean shot at the net with 31 seconds to go, thus tying the game. And in overtime, Zajac drew 2 defenders to free Langs in the slot and he rifled a one timer past Fleury to seal the 8th victory in the row for the Devils.

Thanks in large part to his recent success, Langenbrunner was named the NHL's first star of the week. Later that afternoon, he was named the NHL's first star of the month along with Buffalo's Ryan Miller, who last proved the team cannot win without him.

NOTES: Scott Clemmensen picked up his 20th victory of the season against Ottawa… Patrik Elias has more points this season at this point than he did all of last season... Elias also needs just 16 points to reach 700 for his career, and 14 goals away from 300 goals… The Devils are 26-14-2 since losing Brodeur… Brodeur has begun skating on his own, but Brent Sutter is in no rush to get him back in the lineup.