The Devils have been under fire as of late over their horrible performance during the first period of each game. In the past few contests, when the Devils have dropped the first twenty minutes, they have lost.

When they have controlled the first period, they have gone on to win the game. And when they dominate all sixty minutes of the game, they are an unstoppable unit.

After the players sat down and had a long meeting about their lackluster first period performances, they made their first turnaround and dominated all sixty minutes of their match-up against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night with a 6-1 win over their Eastern Conference rivals.

"I thought tonight was as good a game as we've played all year, and not at all because we scored six goals," head coach Brent Sutter said. "It was the way we played the game. We played 60 minutes. Our emotion and intensity levels for the game were very high."

But who did the Devils rely heavily upon to win this game? Their defensemen. Three defensemen notched four of the six goals for the Devils against the 'Canes. It was the first time since October 31, 1984 that four goals were scored by Devils’ defensemen in one game.

The first goal of the game was tallied by Colin White, who scored his first goal of the season just five games ago, lighting the lamp at 3:08 with a slapshot from the blueline. Paul Martin scored the second goal by a Devils’ defenseman during a power play. The puck deflected off of Cam Ward’s right pad, hit Cory Stillman and caromed past Ward at 5:53, marking Martin’s fourth goal of the season. Mere seconds later in front of Brodeur’s net, a confrontation ensued after Wade Brookbank (older brother of Sheldon) pushed Andy Greene into the net and then attempted to hit Brodeur. Marty responded with a hit of his own on Brookbank before Mike Rupp and the others came in to defend their goaltender.

Carolina’s Keith Aucoin would cut the deficit in half on his belly, using his stick to send a wrist-shot into the left corner past Brodeur at 10:35, his third of the season. This was the lone goal of the game for the Hurricanes, as the Devils’ defense continued to pulverize their Eastern Conference rivals. Five minutes after the Aucoin goal, Johnny Oduya went end-to-end, weaving between Canes players and firing a wristshot through Ward's five-hole at 15:47.

Seconds after the goal, Arron Asham and Brookbank got caught up in front of the penalty box ready to start a scrap, but were denied when they were separated by the officials. With just one second left in Jeff Hamilton’s tripping minor, Dainius Zubrus tipped-in a rebound off a Brian Gionta shot at 17:58, ending the first period with the Devils holding a decisive 4-1 lead.

Shortly into the second stanza, Martin notched his second goal of the game at 1:29. And later in the period, Jay Pandolfo finished off the scoring when he ripped a wrist-shot goal off of a pass from John Madden into the net at 14:41, his tenth goal of the season. This also marked Pandolfo’s second goal in back-to-back games since his return to the line-up. As for the Canes, the Devils’ sixth goal sent Cam Ward to the locker room as John Grahame replaced him in net for Carolina.

In the last 11:38 of regulation, Brookbank started another attack on the Devils’ goaltender when he caused White to fall on top of the goalie. White got up and joined his teammates when they went after Brookbank after his second attempt on Brodeur. His attempt did not afford the Canes any advantages over the netminder in the last minutes of the period, as the period went scoreless, and the Devils defeated the Hurricanes 6-1.

Notes

Brodeur is now 28 wins away from matching Patrick Roy’s all-time career wins of 551.

The Devils host the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night. After Saturday’s win over the Hurricanes, the Devils move into second place behind the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Atlantic Division.