Wings Too Hot For Devils
It is not unexpected that a matchup of the NHL's conference leaders would be a rough-and-tumble contest.
Kirk Maltby scored the last of three second-period goals, leading the Detroit Red Wings past the New Jersey Devils 3-1 Saturday night in a penalty-filled meeting.
Devils forward Jay Pandolfo needed almost 90 stitches to close several cuts around his left eye after he was checked hard into the boards behind the Detroit net by Martin Dandenault in the second period.
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Devils coach Robbie Ftorek was so angry that play wasn't stopped that he threw a section of the team bench onto the ice.
"I'm not going to say anything about it," Ftorek said. "I talked to the refs about it, but I'm not going to say anything else about the referees."
Ftorek, who received a penalty, stormed toward his team's dressing room and came back with Pandolfo, who still had blood streaming down his face, to show referee Stephen Walkom the injury.
"Robbie wanted to show the referee," Pandolfo said. "I don't know if it was a penalty or not."
The Devils players had plenty to say about the incident.
"If we lost 10-0, I wouldn't care," Bobby Holik said. "But when your linemate or teammate gets hurt like that and there's nothing done about it, that's just beyond comprehension."
Defenseman Scott Stevens agreed.
"There was no reason not to blow the whistle," he said. "I'm not saying there should've been penalty, but it should've been blown down."
Pandolfo stood in the dressing room with large cuts on his nose and around his blackened eye.
Walkom called 16 penalties for 60 minutes in the only regular-season meeting between the clubs.
"Obviously it was a higher tempo game," defenseman Chris Chelios said. "It was pretty chippy out there."
Vyacheslav Kozlov and Sergei Fedorov also scored in the second period as the Red Wings won for the fourth straight time.
Jason Arnott scored for the Devils, who lost 4-3 in overtime Friday at Carolina and have dropped two straight for just the second time this season. New Jersey is 3-9-0 in the second game on consecutive days.
The Devils still lead the Eastern Conference with an NHL-best 71 points. Detroit is atop the Western Conference with 69. Both teams have an league-high 30 wins.
The loss snapped Devils goalie Martin Brodeur's 10-game winning streak. Patrik Elias' team-record 15-game scoring streak was also snapped.
Brodeur made 24 saves but was bested by Chris Osgood, who stopped 35 shots in his fourth straight win.
"It was a good game," Osgood said. "There was a lot of intensity. When the game started the teams got fired up real good."
Osgood has allowed just four goals in his last three games.
"If you want to take it to the next level, you've got to play better defensively," Chelios said.
New Jersey took a 1-0 lead when Arnott scored from the right circle with 1:15 left for the only goal of the first. Petr Sykora made the play with a nice cross-ice pass just after the Devils killed off a penalty.
Kozlov drew Detroit even 3:34 into the second when his shot from the edge of the right circle went over Brodeur's glove.
Fedorov put the Red Wings ahead when he redirected Dandenault's point shot past Brodeur at 10:43.
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