The New Jersey Devils most leaned-on line needed to start somewhere. If it took the Los Angeles Kings pulling otherworldly goaltender Jonathan Quick to help them break their ice in the Stanley Cup Finals, so be it.
In Wednesday night’s Game 4, top gun Ilya Kovalchuk led all Devils skaters, defensemen included, with 20 minutes and 28 seconds of ice time.
Appropriately enough, he spent that time throwing eight attempted shots and tied linemate Zach Parise for the team lead with a series-high four shots on goal. He had accumulated five over the previous three contests.
The last of those shots, his empty-net goal, finalized a series-saving 3-1 triumph and ended his series-long pointless skid.
Kovalchuk likewise gave linemate Travis Zajac his first point of the series in the form of the primary assist. All three first-line forwards finished with a plus-one rating by virtue of the goal.
And this followed the acts of another top-sixer, Adam Henrique, splashing his series-old drought with the go-ahead strike and born-again blue-line playmaker Bryce Salvador reawakening to assist on the first goal earlier in the period.
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Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Al Daniel
Stanley Cup Finals 2012: Will Ilya Kovalchuk, Linemates Wake Up in Game 5?
June 9th, 2012 by Al Daniel Leave a reply »
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