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EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- For a brief moment, the New Jersey Devils appeared to take a big step toward securing another division title. Joe Nieuwendyk's goal in the opening minute of overtime was negated by a penalty as the Devils settled for a 1-1 tie with the Boston Bruins that left the Atlantic Division up for grabs. Just 49 seconds into the extra period, Jamie Langenbrunner forced a turnover by defenseman Nick Boynton. The puck came to Nieuwendyk, who whipped it past goaltender Steve Shields. But Langenbrunner was called for holding, drew a misconduct for arguing and smashed his stick as he stormed to the locker room. "It's a little frustrating when the game is the type of battle it was and they are not calling anything, and then they call something that you would definitely have to think twice about calling, that's for sure," Langenbrunner said, "especially when there's four minutes left in a big game for us. I'm not happy with it." New Jersey did a stellar job killing the ensuing power play but could not get the puck past Shields, who made 28 saves. Nieuwendyk got one that counted in the opening period and Martin Brodeur stopped 22 shots for the Devils, who moved two points in front of second-place Philadelphia with two games to play. A win in this one virtually would have ensured a first-round playoff meeting with Boston. "There is definitely a chance we'll play these guys and I thought we matched up well tonight," Brodeur said. "But now we have to move on because we have two big games to go." All but locked into the seventh seed in the East, the Bruins are winless in five straight (0-2-3). "It was a good effort, but we still turned the puck over in areas we didn't need to," Boston coach Mike O'Connell said. "They force you into areas where the turnovers are created. We have to avoid that against a team like New Jersey." Ironically, a turnover by New Jersey led to the tying goal 3:57 into the second period. Glen Murray swept the puck away from Devils defenseman Scott Niedermayer at his own blue line, sending Joe Thornton in on a breakaway. He snapped a wrist shot past Brodeur for his 36th goal of the season and second in 11 games. "Glen made that whole play happen," Thornton said. "I was lucky enough to get the breakaway and squeeze it by him." Asked if Murray actually made contact with him, Niedermayer said, "I really don't know. I haven't seen the replay. I definitely lost it to him. Unfortunately, that was the difference in (not getting) a win for me." Nieuwendyk opened the scoring at 3:36 of the first period. Langenbrunner had the puck low in the right faceoff circle and threw a cross-ice pass that Nieuwendyk tapped past Shields for his 17th goal. "We had our chances to get two points and had great chances in overtime, but we got a point out of it," Langenbrunner said. "We know our magic number and now we have two big games to go." John Madden had a chance to break the 1-1 tie but put a wrist shot off the goalpost with 12:46 to go in the second period. While killing a penalty, New Jersey's Pascal Rheaume had a partial breakaway, but Shields got his blocker on a backhander. "I had some chances to make some saves at the end," Shields said. "They had some situations where they got in position to take a shot and maybe didn't have any other options, so it was a pretty straightforward situation for a goalie." |
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