Weekes Crashes Lighting Hopes In Shootout

Tonight was the first night of many to come over the next few months that the New Jersey Devils leaned on Kevin Weekes in goal to get them a victory. Weekes stopped 24 of 27 shots and then 2 of 3 in the shootout to lead the Devils to a 4-3 shootout victory.

After a goal by Lecalavier in the shootout, Weekes stopped Jokinen and Prospal to win the shootout. After Parise's backhand hit the crossbar, Elias and Langenbrunner scored, beating Lighting goalie Mike Smith low on the glove side to complete the shootout victory.

While falling behind 1-0 on a first period goal by Jokinen, the Devils offense continued to stall. Finally after more than four and half periods a goal by Clarkson off the right wing tied the game 1-1and broke the scoreless drought. Then two-minutes and fourty-second later Elias scored a power-play goal to give the Devils a 2-1 lead.

The third period saw the Devils penalty kill fail once again. A penalty by Petr Vrana led to a Jokinen's second goal of the game to tie the score at 2-2. Then after a Pandolfo goal to take back the lead, Brookbank was called for delay of game when he flipped a backhand into the stands with no Lighting player within 50-feet. Brookbank's mistake led to a St. Louis goal with 3:20 remaining in the game. The Lighting finished 2-for-3 on the power-play and now have given up 13 power-play goals on the season compared to the 7 they have scored on the power-play.

Patrick Elias and Danius Zubrus made huge impact on the game and both players finished with two-points on the night. Zubrus now has 7 pts. (2G-5A) in his last six games.The win makes the Devils 2-1-2 in their last five games and now visit the Stanley Cup Champions on Saturday and then the Edmonton Oilers at home on Sunday before the Rangers come to town next Wednesday.

Notes:
- Rolston has begun to skate on his own, but no time table has been set for his return.
- For the second game in-a-row, Bergfors was benched in the 3rd period limiting his ice-time. Rookie line-mate, Petr Vrana has not scored a point in his 7 games since his goal in his debut at Washington.
- Paul Martin missed his second game with what has been called upper body soreness.
- Devils are now 6-1-0 when they out-shoot their opponents.