Brodeur Handles Hurricanes

The New Jersey Devils and Martin Brodeur made sure Saturday night they didn’t let another lead slip away.

Sergei Brylin and Jamie Langenbrunner scored, Brodeur stopped 30 shots and the defending Stanley Cup champions held off the Carolina Hurricanes, 2-1, at Raleigh, N.C.

The Devils lost leads of 2-0 and 3-2 in their opener against Boston on Wednesday night, settling for a 3-3 tie.

This time, Brodeur and the defense were sharp enough to hold on despite pressure by the Hurricanes during the final 10 minutes.

“It makes it easier when you face quality chances,” Brodeur said about his stellar performance. “It helps you get into a groove and they had a lot of quality chances, a lot of quality chances.”

Rod Brind’Amour hit the post less than two minutes into the third period, nearly ending Brodeur’s shutout bid. The Carolina center then scored with 7 1/2 minutes left to pull the Hurricanes within one goal.

New Jersey had to kill a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty in the final 3 1/2 minutes, but Carolina managed only two shots on the power play and couldn’t score in the final 1:03 after pulling goaltender Kevin Weekes for an extra attacker.

The Hurricanes are 0-2 for the first time since 1997-98.

Detroit 3, Ottawa 2 -- Nicklas Lidstrom scored the Red Wings’ third power-play goal of the game 2:52 into overtime at Ottawa.

Lidstrom’s slap shot from the point beat goalie Patrick Lalime with three seconds left in Zdeno Chara’s interference penalty, giving Detroit its second win in as many games.

Tomas Holmstrom and Steve Yzerman also scored power-play goals and Dominik Hasek made 17 saves for his second win since coming out of retirement.

Montreal 4, Toronto 0 -- Jose Theodore made 21 saves and the Canadiens scored three times in the second period to spoil the Maple Leafs’ season opener.

The Maple Leafs, losers in the first round of the playoffs last season, were booed heartily as they left the ice.

Mike Ribeiro, Richard Zednik and Sheldon Souray scored in the second period.

The Canadiens won in the Air Canada Centre for only the second time in 12 games.

Columbus 5, New York Rangers 0 -- The win at Columbus, Ohio, tied franchise records for widest margin of victory and most lopsided shutout win. The Blue Jackets also tied a club record for most power-play tries with 11, scoring on three.

The capacity crowd of 18,136 was so appreciative that it gave the Blue Jackets a standing ovation for the final minute of play.

New York Islanders 6, Buffalo 0 -- The win at Buffalo gave Coach Steve Stirling his first NHL victory. He replaced Peter Laviolette in June.

The Sabres were shut out for the second consecutive game, the first time in franchise history they have started the season with two shutouts.

Atlanta 4, Washington 3 -- Ronald Petrovicky scored twice and Randy Robitaille had a goal and two assists to give the Thrashers their first win at Washington. They were 0-7-2-1 there since joining the league five years ago.

Pittsburgh 3, Philadelphia 3 -- Aleksey Morozov’s goal with 7:12 left rallied the Penguins from a three-goal deficit at Philadelphia.

The Penguins were coming off a 3-0 season-opening loss to the Kings in which they tied a franchise home low with only 11 shots.

But against the Flyers, they surpassed that total midway through the second period.

Florida 1, Boston 1 -- Olli Jokinen scored early in the third period to give the Panthers a tie at Sunrise, Fla.

Sergei Samsonov scored for Boston, which failed to win at least one of its first three games (0-2-1) for the first time since 1999-2000, when the Bruins didn’t get their first win until their 10th game.

Dallas 3, Nashville 1 -- Mike Modano scored a power-play goal in the third period to cap the Stars’ win at Nashville.

Modano, stationed in the middle of the right circle, one-timed a pass from Sergei Zubov past Tomas Vokoun.

Calgary 3, San Jose 2 -- Shean Donovan scored the decisive goal early in the third period to lift the Flames in their home opener.

Donovan put the Flames ahead 1:38 into the third period when he got behind the Shark defense, controlled a bouncing puck at his feet and slapped a high shot over the glove of Evgeni Nabokov.

Vancouver 3, Edmonton 0 -- Matt Cooke scored two goals and set up a third to lead the Canucks at Vancouver.

Defenseman Jiri Slegr, playing his first NHL game since winning the Stanley Cup with Detroit two years ago, had a short-handed goal.