Despite a recent rough-patch in their schedule, the Devils have regained first place by virtue of their 4-3 shootout victory over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night at the Xcel Energy Center.

However, the game began inauspiciously for New Jersey who appeared to be in for another long game after the opening frame.

Just three minutes into the game the Devils defense left Stephane Veilleux wide open in the slot who received a pass from Branko Radivojevic and fired it past Martin Brodeur to give the Wild a 1-0 lead.

Brent Burns made it 2-0 walking in from the point and receiving a centering pass from Pierre-Marc Bouchard. Burns took the pass and blistered a slap shot that found the back of the net.

In past games, this usually signaled the end for the New Jersey Devils, but, the Devils would make it a game this time.

Five minutes into the middle frame, Vitaly Vishnevski fired a slap shot from the point that hit the top right corner over the glove hand of Niklas Backstrom and all of the sudden the Devils cut the defecit in half.

For Vishnevski, who had not played in the Devils previous nine games, it was his second of the season.

Brian Gionta scored his 20th of the season midway through the second stuffing home the rebound of a shot by Jay Pandolfo.

Minnesota responded in the last minute of the second period with a slick play by their top line.

Marian Gaborik to a pretty feed from Bouchard and slid it past Brodeur, a goal that could have broken the backs of the New Jersey Devils, but once again, they were resiliant.

In the third period, Dainius Zubrus, in an impressive power move, to a pass from David Clarkson and drove straight to the net and cut around Backstrom scoring his 10th goal of the season and his first in 14 games. Once again the game was tied.

“Our resiliency really paid off,” Devils coach Brent Sutter said in his post-game press conference in Minnesota.

After a scoreless overtime, the game went to a shootout.

In the first two rounds, the shooters failed on both sides. Gionta and Zach Parise failed to convert for New Jersey while Burns and Pavol DeMitra were both stopped by Brodeur.

“Anytime we have Marty in net in the shootout,” said Jamie Langenbrunner to the reporters after the game. “We like our chances.”

Langenbrunner, a Cloquet, Minnesota native, scored in the third round on a nice deke and then former-Devil Brian Rolston was stopped to win the game.

Lost in the spectacular game was another solid performance by Brodeur. This time he made 34 saves en route to his 39th victory. He is one win shy of his seventh 40-win seasons.

“I made a lot of saves, but I got real lucky, too,” Brodeur said to the Minnesota press. “They threw a lot on net and a lot of weird bounces from the boards and even from tips and stuff. Sometimes you need that luck to survive, and it was definitely on our side.”

Notes: Langenbrunner, Parise and Paul Martin are all Minnesota natives and Parise and Martin played in Minnesota against the Wild for the first time in their careers. All three had plenty of friends and relatives on hand. Martin also played for the first time in five games missing time with a bruised foot. Colin White remains out with an upper-body injury.

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