Although the Devils had beaten the Flyers six straight games (four in last year’s postseason) before last night, I was still somehwhat concerned about the teams’ third meeting at the Rock this year.  Both with the spotty way the Devils have been playing lately and just the fact that you’re not going to beat a team with the Flyers’ talent every single time.  Not to mention the Flyers were – to a man – pointing to this home-and-home series as do-or-die for their playoff chances.

Desperation may be a powerful weapon, but it wasn’t enough for the guys in white and orange last night as the Devils’ recent dominance over their tri-state rivals continued with a 5-2 win last night that was every bit as impressive as the final scoreline.  Perhaps now, with three wins in their last four games the Devils have finally stemmed the tied of their February losing.

As was the case in the teams’ first two meetings at the Rock this year, the Devils jumped out front quickly, this time scoring at 2:02 when Patrik Elias converted off a rebound from his backhand for his ninth goal of the season after shots toward the net from Adam Henrique and Steve Bernier (both getting assists).  Although there were a couple of sketchy penalty calls against us in first period, perhaps hockey justice was served when the only good call – tripping on Ryan Carter – wound up burning us when Wayne Simmonds found an open Jacob Voracek at the left side of the net for a one-timer goal at 9:45.

After thirty-six seconds of being level on the scoreboard, the Devils regained the lead for the remainder of the game when Henrique’s shot toward the net deflected off Matt Read and in.  Elias and (believe it or not) Johan Hedberg got assists on that goal.  Perhaps Moose has gotten his confidence back with his play in recent games, even playing the puck better though I’d still prefer he stay in the net most of the time.  More importantly he’s making the stops when he needed to, like a two-pad stack and juggling glove save robbery on Simon Gagne‘s one-timer at the side of the net on the Flyers’ first power play.

Philly’s third power play of the first period also resulted in a goal – for the Devils, when Stephen Gionta‘s well placed clear found a wide-open Kovalchuk streaking in one-on-one with Ilya Bryzgalov.  Kovy beat the Flyers’ quotable netminder shortside high for his tenth goal of the year, which includes an incredible four shorthanded goals already.  Even that wasn’t the prettiest goal of the night however, that honor belonged to Kovy’s countryman Andrei Loktionov (see above YouTube) with Alexei Ponikarovsky starting Lokti and Kovy on a two-on-one after another well-placed chip out of the zone.  Instead of automatically deferring to Kovy on the two-on-one, Lokti pulled up with a beautiful toe-drag faking Braydon Coburn off his skates, and beating Bryzgalov with a wide-open wrister in front at 6:31 of the second period for his fourth goal since coming to the Devils.  As coach Pete DeBoer said after the game, most young players don’t get the opportunity to play with a player of Kovalchuk’s caliber, but Lokti’s earned the right to stay on that line with production almost every night.

Our 2013 scrap-heap wonder (Lokti) would also have a hand in the Devils’ final goal, which was a nice tic-tac-toe passing play on an early third-period power play.  Kovy to Marek Zidlicky to Lokti and then finally to Henrique, who finished it off with an open backhander in front at 1:16 of the third.  Zidlicky and Lokti got the official assists on Henrique’s second of the night, which effectively finished the game as a contest.  Philly’s usual goonery when behind led to three third-period penalties that helped the Devils run off the clock although they nearly lost a player in the process when Daniel Briere cross-checked Krys Barch headfirst into the boards – a penalty that was not called – and with the way Barch was laid out I instantly thought concussion and he’s out for a long time…he didn’t miss a shift and in fact nearly scored on his next one.  New acquisition Tom Kostopolous laid out Scott Hartnell in what was arguably the highlight of the third.  It would be Hartnell who closed out the scoring with what may be laughingly be described as a consolation goal at 16:08.

Last night however, belonged to a New Jersey team increasingly regaining their confidence from the goal out.