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  Wednesday, Nov. 8 7:30pm ET
Fitzgerald stuns Devils, Brodeur
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- The Nashville Predators believe the worst of their growing pains are behind them. They needed no more proof than a gritty victory over the Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils.

Martin Brodeur
Nashville's Ville Peltonen, rear, celebrates after Tom Fitzgerald, not shown, scores on Martin Brodeur with 16.7 seconds left.
The third-year team pulled out a 4-3 victory on Wednesday night when Tom Fitzgerald scored with 16.7 seconds remaining in the third period. The Devils, trailing 3-1 late in the third period, stormed back to tie it on goals by Sergei Nemchinov and Brian Rafalski 26 seconds apart.

Rather than crumble in the face of the Devils' onslaught, the Predators regained their composure and Fitzgerald poked in the winner in a goal-mouth scramble in the waning seconds.

"In the past we've lost these games," Fitzgerald said. "We seem to be a lot more poised on the bench. We said we had been playing well, just keep it going. We were going to go down fighting."

Barry Trotz, the Predators' only head coach, can see the younger players on the team gaining maturity in the pressure situations with the help of some veteran leaders.

"In the last two years, if it was 3-1 and they scored two, we would be in full scramble," he said. "We would be scared to touch the puck.

"This is more of a determined group. I give Scott Walker a lot of credit along with Tom Fitzgerald and Billy Houlder. Those guys are very vocal and they really help us on the bench."

One of the few positives for the Devils was that goalie Martin Brodeur felt no pain after the game.

"It's there but it felt good," Brodeur said of the groin injury sustained Thursday night in the Devils' 5-3 loss to Toronto.

The five-time All-Star returned to practice Monday and pronounced himself ready for action. He picked a poor night to return.

"This wasn't something real pretty to see," Brodeur said.

Not when it ended with Fitzgerald poking the puck past Brodeur's lunging glove-save attempt in the midst of a goal-mouth scramble.

Cliff Ronning, David Legwand and Scott Walker also scored for Nashville, which ended a two-game winless streak.

Steve Kelly, Sergei Nemchinov and Brian Rafalski scored for New Jersey, which lost its third straight and extended its winless streak to four.

Ronning beat Brodeur at 5:04 of the first period to stake Nashville to a 1-0 lead. Ronning took a pass from Legwand in the left corner and delayed pulling the trigger long enough to secure a clear shooting lane.

Kelly pulled the Devils even at 6:10 as he bulled his way through a check down the left wing to flip a the puck over Thomas Vokoun.

Legwand and Walker scored in the third to put Nashville up 3-1. The Legwand goal at 6:14 followed a glaring giveaway by Rafalski. Many in the crowd of 15,978 headed for the exits when Walker scored at 13:14.

Those who left early missed the down-to-wire excitement.

Nemchinov scored a tide-turning goal on a setup from Bobby Holik at 13:48 to set the stage for Rafalski to make amends 26 seconds later.

With the Devils on the power play, Rafalski took a pass at the point from Patrik Elias and cut to the net to beat Vokoun from the bottom of the left circle and pull New Jersey even at 3-3.

It appeared the Devils would escape with the tie until Fitzgerald decided the contest in the waning seconds.

Game notes
Devils RW Petr Sykora, who did not practice Monday, sat out with a groin injury. ... New Jersey next plays a rare set of consecutive home games against Pittsburgh on Friday and Buffalo on Saturday. ... Devils C Steve Kelly played in his 100th game.
 


ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard

Nashville Clubhouse

New Jersey Clubhouse


RECAPS
Pittsburgh 5
Philadelphia 2

Montreal 4
Florida 2

Nashville 4
New Jersey 3

Toronto 5
Carolina 0

Calgary 1
Minnesota 0

San Jose 3
Chicago 2

Detroit 4
Phoenix 2

Vancouver 7
Anaheim 2

AUDIO/VIDEO
video
 Steve Kelly carries the puck in for the goal.
avi: 535 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1