Brodeur gets shutout as Devils blank Senators

OTTAWA -- Martin Brodeur found one more thing to celebrate on an eventful Saturday.

"Isn't it a payday today?" Brodeur joked after recording his first shutout of the season and his 300th career win to lead the New Jersey Devils to a 2-0 victory over the Ottawa Senators.

Brodeur was also named to Canada's Olympic team.

"It doesn't get better than this," said Brodeur, who became the third-fastest goalie in NHL history to reach 300 wins.

Brodeur, who didn't play in New Jersey's 3-2 loss to Florida on Friday, got the win in his 547th game. Only Jacques Plante and Andy Moog reached the milestone in less games.

"I'm just happy it's over, and I won't have to deal with or answer questions about it," Brodeur said. "Now I've just got to try to go on to bigger and better things, try to climb up and get some more wins and hopefully get in a situation where I'm able to reach another milestone."

Petr Sykora and Jason Arnott scored for the Devils as Brodeur stopped 39 shots for his 52nd career shutout and first since April 7 against Montreal.

"I knew it was going to come," Brodeur said. "My career isn't over so I knew I was going to at least mix in a win, but it's nice to do it in this fashion -- my first shutout of the year. It's been a rough go for everybody and it's nice to get that on the board."

Sykora scored an unassisted goal on New Jersey's first shot nearly seven minutes in.

"We were playing really patient hockey," Sykora said. "You can't play run-and-gun against this team. They've got a lot of skill and a lot of speed, and we were just waiting back for them.

"The first shot, sometimes it's tough," he continued. "We were facing a really good team and we were very fortunate that we scored because it's so much easier to play with the lead."

He also assisted on Arnott's power-play goal 7:02 into the third, less than five minutes after Brodeur made a spectacular save to deny Ottawa the tying goal.

With the Senators on the power play, Brodeur seemingly dove too late to stop Martin Havlat's shot into an open left side 2:08 into the third.

"It was close," Brodeur said. "I wasn't really sure. I looked up at Marty and said, 'Was it in?'"

Though the goal light went on, neither on-ice official signaled a goal. Despite the repeated and insistent sounding of the Corel Centre's horn, referee Greg Kimmerly waved off the goal following a video review.

"I didn't see if it went in or not, and Martin didn't know either," Havlat said. "It was tough, but it was a great save."

New Jersey, which was outshot 39-18, has won four straight against the Senators, including their first three meetings this season. The Devils won a home-and-home series between the teams in October.

Ottawa, which ended a three-game unbeaten streak, lost for just the second time in 13 home games (9-2-2) since losing 2-1 to New Jersey at the Corel Centre on Oct. 23.

The Senators were leading 6-0 in shots when Sykora scored his seventh of the season on a slap shot past Patrick Lalime at 6:52 of the first.

Arnott scored for the second straight game with 12:58 left in the third when his slap shot from the point beat Lalime for his 12th of the season.

Notes: Plante got his 300th win in his 524th game and Moog needed 543 games to reach the milestone. ... Brodeur took over sole possession of 19th place on the NHL's career shutout list, moving one ahead of Rogie Vachon and Dave Kerr. ... Ottawa right winger Bill Muckalt, who has yet to score through 31 games, hit the post midway through the third. Muckalt's last goal was on April 2 against Pittsburgh, when he was with the New York Islanders. ... Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson missed his third straight game because of a hip pointer. He is day-to-day. ... Ottawa went 2-0-1-1 against the Devils last season.