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Schwei On Ice: Sweet 15

By John Schweibacher
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The red-hot New Jersey Devils come into the week having gone 12-1-2 in their last 15 games dating back to January 9th, the best record in the NHL since that date. Here are the teams with the best and worst records in the league in that same span (through games of February 13th):

Best records in NHL since 1/9

· New Jersey 12-1-2 26pts
· Calgary 10-2-4 24pts
· Philadelphia 11-3-0 22pts
· Vancouver 9-3-3 21pts
· San Jose 10-4-1 21pts
· Boston 10-6-0 20pts
Worst records in NHL since 1/9:

· Ottawa 2-10-2 6pts
· Edmonton 3-12-1 7pts
· Colorado 4-10-0 8pts
· Atlanta 3-7-4 10pts
· NY Rangers 5-9-1 11pts
· St. Louis 4-7-3 11pts

New Jersey's 12-1-2 mark over their last 15 games is the club's best record during a stretch of at least 15 games since early last season when the Devils went 14-2-0 in 16 contests from October 8th through November 14th. New Jersey's best-ever extended regular-season run came late in the 2000-01 campaign when they won a club record 13 consecutive games and finished out the schedule with a 19-2-0 mark over their final 21 games.

The Devils' 2-1 win at Toronto last Thursday came on an overtime goal by Ilya Kovalchuk, after winning their previous game (Tuesday vs. Carolina) on an extra-time goal by rookie Mattias Tedenby. It marked the sixth time in Devils history they won consecutive regular-season games in overtime:

· 2/8 & 2/10/2009

Devils 3 vs. Carolina 2 Tedenby
Devils 2 at Toronto 1 Kovalchuk

· 1/29 & 1/30/2009

Devils 4 at Boston 3 Langenbrunner
Pittsburgh 3 vs. Devils 4 Langenbrunner

· 12/4 & 12/6/2008

Devils 3 at Philadelphia 2 Elias
Devils 2 at Montreal 1 Parise

· 11/30 & 12/2/2002

Devils 5 at St. Louis 4 Friesen
Devils 1 at Philadelphia 0 Gionta

· 11/16 & 11/18/2000

Devils 3at Boston 2 Gomez
Carolina 2 vs. Devils 3 Elias

· 3/9 & 3/10/1996

Devils 4 at Pittsburgh 3 Thomas
Devils 3 at Philadelphia 2 Guerin

Kovalchuk's overtime goal was his third of the season, tying him with Dustin Byfuglien and John Tavares for the league lead. This is the first time in Kovalchuk's NHL career that he has scored three overtime goals in one season and he is now the 7th player in Devils history with at least three regular-season sudden death game-winners in one season:

· Scott Niedermayer 4 (2001-02)
· Patrik Elias 4 (2003-04)
· Steve Thomas 3 (1995-96)
· Patrik Elias 3 (2000-01)
· Patrik Elias 3 (2007-08)
· Zach Parise 3 (2008-09)
· Ilya Kovalchuk 3 (2010-11)

Johan Hedberg picked up the victories in New Jersey's overtime wins over Carolina and Toronto last week, his first OT wins as a Devil and the 95th and 96th all-time in sudden-death in club history. Martin Brodeur has the other two overtime wins so far this season for New Jersey, giving him 59 for his career. Here is the all-time list of career overtime victories by goaltenders in Devils' history:

· Martin Brodeur 59
· Sean Burke 7
· Alain Chevrier 7
· Scott Clemmensen 6
· Chris Terreri 5
· Craig Billington 4
· Chico Resch 2
· Johan Hedberg 2
· Mike Dunham 1
· Bob Sauve 1
· Corey Schwab 1
· John Vanbiesbrouck 1

Youth was served in New Jersey's 3-2 overtime win against Carolina last week, as all five goals were scored by rookies: two by the Devils' Mattias Tedenby, two by the Hurricanes' Jeff Skinner and one by the Devils' Nick Palmieri. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first NHL game in which at least five goals were scored and all the scoring was done by rookies since January 18th, 1975, when the Devils' predecessors, the Kansas City Scouts, beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-1. The Scouts got two-goal games from rookies Wilf Paiement and Norm Dube, and rookie Alain Daigle scored the only goal for Chicago.

Thanks to his overtime winner for the Devils, Mattias Tedenby became only the second rookie in Devils history to score a regular-season overtime goal, joining defenseman Paul Martin, who beat the Kings in sudden-death back on February 15th, 2004. Doug Brown is the only New Jersey Devils rookie to score a post-season overtime goal, beating the Boston Bruins, 3-2, on May 4th, 1988 in Game 2 of the Wales Conference Finals.

This week, the Devils play a home-and-home set of games Wednesday and Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes, wrapped around a Friday night match-up with the cross-river rival New York Rangers.

New Jersey has split its first two contests with the 'Canes; a 6-3 loss in Raleigh back on January 1st and last week's 3-2 overtime victory for the Devils in Newark.

The Rangers won each of the first three meetings with New Jersey but the Devils prevailed in the most recent game between the two teams, 3-2, at Madison Square Garden back on February 3rd.

Henrik Lundqvist was pulled at the 15:04 mark of the second period of that game after allowing three New Jersey goals. It was the second time in the last six Rangers/Devils meetings that Lundqvist was lifted, including a 6-3 New Jersey win on March 10th, 2010, in which the Rangers' goalie left after allowing five goals. Martin Brodeur, who remains sidelined with a right knee injury, was pulled six times in his first 15 regular season starts against the Rangers, but has completed each of his last 73 games vs. New York since, dating back to January 12th, 1997.

Schwei's Plus/Minus:

Plus: Ilya Kovalchuk. Six goals (three of them game-winners), six assists and 12 points over his last nine games.

Plus: Johan Hedberg. 3 and 0 with 96 saves on 101 shots in one relief appearance and three starts after Martin Brodeur goes down with a strained right knee.

Plus: Mike Foligno. The current Anaheim Ducks assistant coach wrote a poem to honor the late Pat Burns, who Foligno played for with Toronto. The poem was set to video as part of this past weekend's Hockey Day in Canada celebration on CBC. Here is a link: http://www.habstalkradio.com/4850/folignos-tribute-to-the-late-coach-pat-burns/

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