PITTSBURGH — Unlike the home-ice ceremony that will honor him Friday, this wasn’t Martin Brodeur’s night.
Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby scored power-play goals and the Penguins ended one of the best homestands in franchise history, twice scoring two goals in a matter of seconds against Brodeur in a a 6-1 rout of the skidding New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night.
Brodeur and the Devils extended a slump (0-5-1) that is jeopardizing their high playoff seeding. Brodeur had allowed six goals against the Penguins only once previously, on March 11, 2006, in Pittsburgh during a 6-3 Penguins victory.
Brodeur, the NHL career victories leader who will be recognized Friday for breaking Patrick Roy’s record, hasn’t won in six starts since going 9-1 following his return from a biceps injury.
Pittsburgh scored early and often in this one, a rare rout of their longtime rivals. Matt Cooke and Bill Guerin scored 36 seconds apart in the first period to make it 2-0, and Crosby and Jordan Staal made the game one-sided by scoring in a 13-second span of the second, pushing Pittsburgh’s lead to 5-1.
“We wanted to jump on them early — they had lost a few in a row there — and make it so they can’t go into their shutdown mode when they get in the lead,” defenseman Mark Eaton said. “We carried the play in the first five or 10 minutes, got a couple of goals, and never allowed them to get much momentum.”
Especially Brodeur, who is 33-24 with four ties against Pittsburgh.
“It wasn’t easy for anybody. You could see the puck had eyes all night,” Brodeur said. “It was just the way it went all night. I just wanted to get it out of the system and stay in the net.”
The Penguins finished 6-1-1 during the longest homestand in franchise history.
