Devils grab Game 3 with overtime win!

Alexei Ponikarovsky scored late in the first overtime period to give the New Jersey Devils a 4-3 win in Game three of their Eastern Conference semi-final series with the Philadelphia Flyers.
The win at the Rock allowed the Devils to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
Patrik Elias,Ilya Kovalchuk and Zach Parise scored the Devils goals in regulation time.
Game four is back at the Rock on Sunday night.....

Hell Raisers
1) I missed the overtime as I had to move to the road office,so I have not seen the Ponikarovsky goal,but reading about it,the goal appears to be off a rebound of Ponikarovsky's own shot.
That is what I like to see in hockey,crashing the net,creating opportunities and smacking in rebounds.
When you play aggressive and not passive hockey-good things happen...

2) Huge night for the returning Ilya Kovalchuk with a goal and two assists.
Kovy's "lower body injury" must have healed quickly after missing game two because this was a far different player than the payer that limped through game one.
Kovalchuk even showed the fire that he has been often criticized for lacking when he pounded the glass and screamed at the refs on a awful call for delay of game that replays showed was a deflection off a Flyer stick...

3) I did not see the OT as noted,but the Devils were accessed a penalty in overtime on Dainius Zubrus for boarding.I cannot say right now,but the AP recap writes that the call was controversial.
From the three periods that I saw,the officiating was far from stellar...

4) One could make a really strong argument that the game should not have reached overtime.
The Daniel Briere goal that tied the game in the third period really should have been a save by Martin Brodeur.Brodeur waited around the net instead of going out and grabbing the puck,which allowed Briere to slam the puck into the net.
Philadelphia would get only one more shot on net for the rest of the period.
Brodeur's uncharacteristic lack of aggressiveness could have cost the Devils severely....

5) More strong penalty killing by New Jersey as they allowed just one goal on the Philly power play in five chances with the PK killing two penalties in overtime.
The Flyers beat Pittsburgh with their power play success for three games against New Jersey,the same level of success has been missing...

6) All things considered,the Devils won a game that they did not play their best game and were the victims of a few bad calls-they still won a game that was a huge one.
If they can add Sunday's game to the coffers,things are looking very good in New Jersey...

Photo Credit:AP Photo