EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- After giving away their last game with a bad first period, the talk in the New Jersey Devils' locker room before playing the Los Angeles Kings was about being ready for the opening whistle.

	New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur makes a save on Los Angeles' Donald Audette, left.

New Jersey was more than ready.

Claude Lemieux and Patrik Elias scored in a 48-second span early in the first period and Devils matched their season high for goals, beating the Kings 7-1 Tuesday night.

"I don't know if we learned from the other game," Devils center Bobby Holik said. "We played better. We played the way we're supposed to play. I don't know if we learned. If you learn something, you have it for not just one game. Tonight we just played better."

John Madden and Jay Pandolfo also blitzed the Kings, scoring on a short-handed bouncer from the red line and on a breakaway, respectively, in a 49-second span in the second period.

Randy McKay, Jason Arnott and Sergei Nemchinov also tallied in the 36-shot assault against goaltenders Jamie Storr and Stephane Fiset.

"We played bad and they played really good," Fiset said. "We didn't do the things we've been doing to win games."

Donald Audette was the only King to beat Martin Brodeur, who stopped 34 shots in winning his 16th game and pushing the Devils record at home to 12-3-2.

The Kings came into the game with the NHL's best road record (now 9-5-3), but they made one mistake after another in their worst defensive game under new coach Andy Murray.

Lemieux stole a blind backhand pass from Bryan Smolinski at the right point and beat Storr from the right circle at 4:16. The Kings inability to get the puck out of their own zone helped Elias break a 12-game goal-scoring drought 48 seconds later with a shot also taken from the right circle.

"We had a bad start the other night and we didn't want to get off to a bad start again," Lemieux said. "We were able to get those two goals in the first five minutes and it gave us a lift for the rest of the game."

McKay got his 10th of the season with 2:13 left in the first period, scoring in close on a nice pass by Holik.

Los Angeles tried to get back in the game in the opening minutes of the second period, outshooting the Devils 9-3 and getting Audette's 11th goal on a three-on-one break.

Brodeur prevented the Kings from getting any closer stopping Jason Blake on a two-on-none breakaway. Los Angeles had another chance to get closer with Ken Daneyko in the penalty box, but the Devils got lucky.

Madden's slap shot from the red line hit off Kings defenseman Rob Blake. Fiset who replaced Storr at the start of the period, lost sight of the puck and went left. The puck stayed right and took a big hop into the net.

"I just lost it," Fiset said. "I moved to one side and it just bounced in front of me."

Pandolfo stripped Aki Berg at the Los Angeles blue line for a breakaway goal 49 seconds later. Arnott scored on a slap shot from the point on a power play late in the second period.

Nemchinov scored in the closing minutes on a tap-in goal.

"We really killed them," Brodeur said. "We had the killer instinct. We scored goals, a lot of big goals and stayed ahead."

The game was the Kings first against former coach Larry Robinson, now an assistant with the Devils.