Devils 2 Panthers 2
SUNRISE, Fla. – Lay this one in Lou Lamoriello’s lap. If the Devils fall short of what would be a tremendous record, and if they are thwarted in their pursuit of a third straight Eastern Conference title, they can point to last night and the league-class sniper their GM didn’t get them at the trade deadline.
They already had one goal from their growing go-to guy, Petr Sykora, and another from the player they did get at the deadline, Sergei Nemchinov, but that was all. Their domination should have produced more, and should have produced victory. Instead, the 36-17 shot advantage they held 2:07 from triumph proved utterly immaterial when rookie Mark Parrish’s second of the night forced them to settle for a 2-2 tie with the Panthers here.
“We played a great game for two periods. In the third, we got away from it,” Robbie Ftorek said. “We fell into the situation of throwing the puck out of the zone instead of controlling it. That gave them momentum.”
The Devils have outshot their opponents an incredible 55 times in 72 games this season, and, without a big gun, depend on those advantages to translate into victories. Last night, a 39-19 disparity wasn’t quite enough.
After failing to beat Sean Burke with any of their first 27 shots, the Devils scored on two straight late in the second, with both Sykora and Nemchinov deflecting home shots after Parrish had opened the scoring for Florida. Still, they led by only one.
Then Parrish left the Devils ruing a missed victory when he beat Martin Brodeur’s glove from the right circle for his 20th, tops among all rookies.
And instead of celebrating what would have been a well-earned victory, they were left wondering if the NHL would provide equal justice against Kirk Muller for a slew-foot dumping of Sykora with 1:08 left. The Devils lost Bobby Holik for a similar play against Paul Laus in November here.
“The exact same thing,” Ftorek said.
Lamoriello has a personal policy of not sending in videotape for league review, and he said he’d adhere to that tenet in this case.
“It was a slew foot,” Lamoriello said.
Ref Don VanMassenhoven did not penalize Muller on the play, but said the Devils did make their slew-foot claim to him.
“I didn’t see a slew foot,” VanMassenhoven said. “One of the linesmen said he thought he saw a high stick.”
“If Bobby Holik had done that, he’d have gotten suspended five games,” Sykora said. “I just got my wind knocked out.”
The tie knocked some of the wind out of the Devils’ sails. It did pull them within three points of conference-leading Ottawa in their pursuit of a third straight Eastern Conference title. But it should have been more.
The Devils have been outshooting their foes all season, to a 54-14-3 tune, and have not been outshot in 15 straight (14-0-1). The shot disparity stood at 24-8 when the Panthers first made the Devils pay for failing to convert. Devils defenseman Scott Niedermayer lost his stick at center ice and brother Rob Niedermayer set up shop behind Martin Brodeur’s net.
Rob Niedermayer passed in front for Parrish, and Scott Niedermayer was too late trying to grab Parrish, who had Brodeur at his mercy and showed none. Burke was finally solved on the Devils’ 28th shot, when Sykora tipped in Jason Arnott’s power play slap for his team-leading 26th at 17:54 of the second. Nemchinov then was credited with giving the Devils the 2-1 lead they took into the third when Randy McKay’s right wing wrister deflected off his shin between Burke’s pads with 35.2 seconds left in the period.
Then the Devils went into their shell, outshot by the Panthers 8-7 in the third. The tying goal was predictable.
“It’s something we have to talk about, we have talked about already,” Ftorek said. “We don’t really want to do that.”
