EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Joe Murphy ended his association with the New York Rangers under bizarre circumstance and things didn't change much in his first game with the Boston Bruins.

Murphy scored a fluky goal on a backhander from the corner with 4:31 to play as Boston rallied for a 2-2 tie with the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night.

"That's as strange a goal as I've seen in a long, long time, if ever," Devils center Bobby Holik said. "It's hard to explain what happened. You can explain it, but to people who have been around the game of hockey for a while, it just doesn't make sense."

Actually, the goal made sense to Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur and Murphy, and the reason for that was New Jersey defenseman Sheldon Souray.

Murphy skated past Souray and carried the puck down the right sideboards. As Souray started to catch up to Murphy he backhanded the puck toward the net.

"It hit his stick," Murphy said. "It was a lucky goal. That was like going through the eye of a needle."

Brodeur saw the backhander coming and he came off the goal post ever so slightly to catch the puck. But when Souray hit it, Brodeur was going one way and could not recover to close the little space he had opened between himself and the post.

"There are lot of weird goals that happen, but that was something I didn't expect from that angle," Brodeur said. "Nobody does. It was just a fluke goal."

It capped a crazy week for Murphy, who played for San Jose last season, and also a great comeback by Boston, which also got a third-period goal from Mikko Eloranta in extending its recent hot streak to 8-1-1.

Rookie sensation Scott Gomez and Sergei Brylin scored for New Jersey, which extended its home unbeaten streak to nine games (7-0-2).

Eloranta ended the shutout bid by converting a nice power-play setup by Sergei Samsonov at 6:56.

Brodeur seemingly preserved the win with a leg save while on his back against former Devil Dave Andreychuk with seven minutes to play.

However, Murphy got the game-tying goal a little more than two minutes later, capping a nice first game as a Bruin.

Murphy's tryout with the Rangers ended under bizarre circumstances. Frustrated with New York's failure to sign him, he signed with Boston. When he went to collect his equipment, he found one of his skates was missing and some of his sticks were cut in half.

The Rangers and Bruins will play Thursday.

"All in all, I'm happy with my first game in seven months," Murphy said.

The end-to-end overtime featured a shot off the goal post by Jason Allison on a breakaway and couple of near misses by each team in front. New Jersey outshot Boston 5-3.

While the Devils outshot Boston 15-8 in the first period, it might have been their weakest shot that gave them a 1-0 lead. Gomez got his fourth goal of the season and second against Boston with a shot from low the left circle that Robbie Tallas simply missed.

Brylin extended the margin to 2-0 with 1:10 remaining in the second period, deflecting a shot from the point by Scott Niedermayer, who assisted on both New Jersey goals.

Brodeur was at his best in a 1:45 span in the second period when the Bruins held a two-man advantage. He stopped Steve Heinze and Andreychuk in close and Ray Bourque on a slap shot. Also, Allison's shot went off the goal post.