SHOOTOUT
Devils 3
Isles 2
The Winning Streak from Nowhere means little if it doesn’t reach double digits tonight.
Still perfect on their New Year’s resolution, 9-0 in ’06, the Devils are now they’re in full pursuit of the early-season rabbit Rangers.
This is the one that matters, though. Tonight’s visit to the Garden is suddenly a showdown that could pull New Jersey within shouting distance of the Gang of Glitz.
Or the Rangers could knock them down and end this shocking nine-game winning streak that followed a strech of losing 12-of-16.
“I’m sure we’re a target to them,” Lou (11-5) Lamoriello said after his Devils won their second straight and third of four by shootout.
Rookie Zach Parise kept the streak alive for tonight’s visit to the Garden. He scored as the Devils’ fifth contestant for the 3-2 shootout decision over the Islanders at the Meadowlands yesterday.
They shake their heads at what they’ve done, and again that their streak still survives.
“If anyone said we’d go 9-0, everyone would have thought them crazy,” Grant Marshall said.
“I don’t know if anyone could guess nine in a row,” said Patrik Elias, still owning a perfect record since his hepatitis comeback ignited this streak.
They’re playing with fire and burning everyone they meet. They’ve blown leads in four straight, a 2-0 edge yesterday, yet they’ve climbed to sixth in the conference.
“There are things we have to fix. It’s nice to win, but at the end of the day, we can’t keep blowing two-goal leads,” Martin Brodeur said.
The Devils took the lead on Sergei Brylin’s 10th in the first and stretched it with Patrik Elias’ fourth of his delayed season at 6:11 of the third, the Devils’ 11th PPG in 22 chances over six games.
The Islanders launched their comeback as Miroslav Satan ended the Devils’ home shutout streak at 184:46. Brodeur had perfect games in New Jersey’s two previous home tilts, and in 3-of-4 at the Meadowlands. Satan found racing room behind Richard Matvichuk, then deked Brodeur to tuck his 15th around the right post at 10:32 of the third.
Mark Parrish tied the game 3:06 later with a 5-on-3. In the left circle, Alexei Yashin collected Satan’s shot off the end boards and centered to the crease for Parrish to shovel home.
When Satan led off the shootout with a goal on Brodeur, and shootout leader Viktor Kozlov was stopped, the streak was in jeopardy. Brodeur then halted Jason Blake and Elias tied the score. Each team’s next two failed, and after Trent Hunter was the fourth straight denied by Brodeur, Parise pushed his winner around Rick DiPietro and the streak lived another day.
“The biggest compliment I could pay them today is that they’re not looking at this streak as anything exceptional,” Lamoriello said. “They’re focused on doing the things they weren’t doing.”
Like winning.
*
The agent for suspended Vladimir Malakhov declined to say whether the defenseman is ready to return to play, which would force resolution of Lou Lamoriello’s claim that Malakhov has retired, a position agent Paul Theofanis’ office disputes. Malakhov is losing out on some $2 million in salary this year and another $3.6M next season.
mark.everson@nypost.com
