Sound familiar? Benitez wasn’t even wearing a Mets uniform this time. Instead, the Newark Bears closer failed to hold a two-run ninth inning lead in the Atlantic League’s All-Star game Tuesday night, giving up four runs on five hits as the Liberty Division stormed back for a 7-5 victory.

Southern Maryland’s Mike Just tied the contest by working the count full against the former two-time major league All-Star. With one out and runners on second and third, Just blasted a two-run single up the middle to tie it at 5.

Bridgeport’s Luis Lopez ripped a RBI single down the leftfield line to plate Just with the game-winning run, tagging Benitez and the Freedom Division with the loss.

“Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose,” an upbeat Benitez said in the home clubhouse afterwards. “I felt like I wasn’t 100 percent until the last couple of batters.”

Benitez, who has taken over as Newark’s closer from former Red Sox Keith Foulke, said he wanted to win the exhibition but still was appreciative of the opportunity. The 36-year-old is a two-time major league All-Star but said earning the respect of fellow players, coaches and fans is important to him.

“You make the All-Star game because people picked you. You did something special,” Benitez said. “It’s a good opportunity to come back. It’s not the big leagues but to be in a situation here, it’s very nice. It’s cool for me and I take pride in being in the All-Star game.”

Just was the only Liberty starter to play the entire game, going 2-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored to earn MVP honors. Ducks closer Bill Simas entered in the eighth inning with the Liberty Division trailing by a run. Since the Liberty squad was the visitor, manager Butch Hobson wanted to ensure Simas got to pitch in front of the 20 scouts in attendance at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium.

The move left the Liberty squad with no more pitchers and Simas had to come out in the ninth for a five-out appearance. Yet Simas thrived on the workload, tossing a 1-2-3 ninth to close out the win.

“For us to come back like that, it’s a pretty big win,” Valentine said. “Even though it’s an exhibition, we’re here to win. Anytime you’re an All-Star, it’s an honor, wherever you are. And the talent that’s in this league; it’s pretty nice.”

The Freedom Division jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two innings, scoring once in the first before Lancaster’s Lloyd Turner blasted a two-run double down the leftfield line. Turner was in line for the MVP award if the Freedom team could have protected the lead.

Unlike last year’s All-Star game in Somerset, there was no pregame home run derby. Ray Navarrete represented the Ducks in the contest last year but still got to swing for the fences, knocking a two-run home run to left in the top of the third to put the Liberty Division on the scoreboard and cut the deficit to 3-2.

“Anytime there’s a home run derby, I always think it makes the All-Star game more fun,” Navarrete said. “Either way, I’m having a good time.”

The Liberty Division plated a run in the seventh before the Freedom squad picked up an insurance run charged to Ducks set-up man Joe Valentine in the eighth. Even the extra run couldn’t help Benitez, who started the ninth by allowing a weak infield single before Camden’s Jason Jacobs lined a single to right.

A pop out and a passed ball put two runners in scoring position for Just, who delivered his clutch hit. Just stole second in front of Lopez’s single and Camden’s Jon Knott brought Lopez home on a RBI double to left-center.

Atlantic League rules state that an extra-inning game would be decided by a homer-off, which would be baseball’s version of the NHL’s shootout where the game would be decided by a home run derby.

Freedom manager Chris Hoiles (York’s manager) said that scenario allowed him to use all his pitchers and save Benitez for the end, where it was his job to finish the inning without needing to worry about arms for extra-innings.

“I figured with what we have, Benitez is our closer and that was the best option I had,” Hoiles said.

And now, with Armando Benitez in the Atlantic League, things haven’t changed.

The erstwhile major league closer came into Atlantic League All-Star Game in Newark with his division leading 5-3 and promptly gave up four runs on five hit to give the Liberty Division a 7-5 win.

“Look, I gave up a few base hits, but the game was fun for me,” Benitez said afterwards.

Sure the game was fun, especially with the celebrity softball game before hand. And yes, this All-Star game was an exhibition, but this was an important game for the players. Besides being a game for the fans, this was a showcase with over 20 major league scouts in attendance. The main reason why many of these players go to the Atlantic League is for a chance to prove they can still play and get picked up by affiliated ball.

So for a guy like Benitez, who yearns to go back to the big leagues, this was his chance.

And true to form, he blew it.

Unless of course, there’s an organization who wants an over the hill closer, that overthrows and then gets tattooed, Met fans learned that over the years. No matter how many easy saves this guy gets, when the heat gets turned up, Benitez starts to choke. Just look at Game 6 of the 1999 NLCS, or Game 1 of the 2000 World Series, or down the stretch in 2001.

You can argue that the Mets fortunes would have been better if they had a better closer.

Yet, you can’t blame Benitez for being what he is, the same way you can’t blame a terrible actor like Ben Affleck for constantly getting starring roles. You need to blame those that hire them. Steve Phillips should have jettisoned Benitez after the 1999 season and got another closer – or at least took his chances with John Franco. But Phillips kept him and everything that happened afterwards was not just the closer’s fault, but the general manager’s as well.

At least the Yankees learned their lesson after only three weeks. After he was sent to the Bronx, the Bombers immediately saw Benitez’s true colors – and the strain he put on Mariano Rivera, who was forced to clean up the mess. So he was shipped to Seattle for Jeff Nelson. No harm, no foul.

Now, six year’s later, he is in the Atlantic League, doing his thing. Sure he’s a name and a draw, but as we saw last night, no matter the competition, Benitez brings it on himself and the bigger the game, the bigger the choke.

Just ask any Met fan.

No backflips accompanied Smith as he took his position during the Atlantic League’s All-Star pregame celebrity exhibition softball game. The 54-year-old said his crowd-pleasing acrobatic ways are a thing of his playing days.

“I play too much golf now. My back is stiff,” Smith said with a laugh inside Newark’s home dugout. “Don’t get old.”

Smith last played a competitive game in 1996 before retiring from the Cardinals. After getting inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002, the 15-time All-Star is relishing his role as an unofficial ambassador to the game.

Current players like Armando Benitez, who was representing the Bears, flocked over to Smith for a hug and a picture. Newark’s Michael Hernandez also wanted to pose with the 13-time gold glove award winner. Behind the backstop, fans clamored for autographs on baseballs, programs and ticket stubs.

Smith said the attention was hard to envision when he first came up with San Diego in 1978. After getting traded to the Cardinals, Smith earned a plague in Cooperstown, playing in St. Louis from 1982-1996, registering 2,460 career hits. That hit total is still impressive considering Smith’s claim to fame was his defense, where he finished his career with a .978 fielding percentage.

“There’s a positive legacy that you want to leave to where you had a positive impact on the sports,” Smith said. “I tried to conduct myself in a manner that would hopefully get me to this point to where people would come up to me, as they do now, and tell me how much they appreciate the way I went about my business.

“I’ve always taken a lot of pride in the way I’ve approached this game. I’ve never taken the game for granted and now I’ve reaped the rewards of it.”

Smith reached base with a first-inning single, where he immediately fist-pumped a mascot. It was just one of many light-hearted moments in a game featuring entertainment personalities and current big-name athletes like Justin Tuck from the Giants and the Jets’ Thomas Jones and Kerry Rhodes. Newark native Queen Latifah also participated as a team captain.

The softball comparisons brought up comparisons to a favorite off-the-field Smith memory. The famous 1992 episode featured Smith on the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant team that included then-major league stars like Steve Sax, Wade Boggs and Roger Clemens.

So, what softball moment did Smith enjoy more?

“Oddly enough, that’s one of the most-asked questions, people ask me a million questions about the Simpsons episode,” Smith said with a chuckle. “It was all a voice over. None of us were in the studio at the same time.”

Playing in Newark’s home ballpark brought Smith back to an independent league. It’s the same type of set-up for which Ozzie’s son Dustin is playing, as the younger Smith is currently leading United League Baseball in steals for Coastal Bend.

“He’s been in the league for a little bit,” Smith said. “A lot of people think it’s easy for sons or daughters of professional athletes to get in the business. It’s tough to break in. I had to take a different route to the big leagues and I’m hoping it’s the same case for him.”

The New Jersey Devils have a great left-right wing combination that’s been known to throw a few punches, with left wing Mike Rupp and right wing David Clarkson on the fourth line, the heart of the team’s toughness.

On a team with a balanced attack of youth and experience, and skill and toughness, Rupp and Clarkson represent the grit that the post-season requires.

“I think in the history of the NHL playoffs, it’s kind of cool because it’s not always the most skilled players that make the difference,” Rupp explained.  “You look in the past at guys who have been big in the playoffs, you look at Darren McCarthy in Detroit and some of these guys that just by grit alone are getting the job done.”

Clarkson and Rupp hope to have that kind of impact during the run for the Stanley Cup this season.

Clarkson led the team during the regular season with 164 penalty minutes, many from big hits or fights to defend and inspire his teammates.

“There’s no fighting in the playoffs, or not as much, but going around crashing, hitting guys. If I get a chance to finish a check, doesn’t matter who it is, I need to make sure I finish it,” Clarkson said. “That’s the way I can help.”

Finish he has, scoring two goals in the first five games of the opening round, including the game-winning goal in Newark on Thursday.

Clarkson scored on the power play 11:22 into the second period to give the Devils a 1-0 lead that would hold until the final buzzer. The tipped shot from Andy Greene came as a big surprise; Clarkson doubted he would be used on the power play at all.

Rupp knows what it feels like to score a big goal during the post season, too.

Rupp worked his way into the Devils line-up just in time to score the Cup-clinching goal in game seven of the 2003 Finals. He earned his spot in this year’s playoff line-up by refusing to quit when he was forced out of the starting rotation for several games at a time after the Devils acquired Brendan Shanahan.

“It’s a long ride, and skill can take you so far, but the heart and the determination I think is really what can put you over the top,” Rupp said. “I think a guy like myself and Clarkie, and a lot of our team, we pride ourselves on that and I think that’s good. If your hands are failing every night, it’s a matter of your determination.”

Determination from this duo has led to points during the regular season; 32 from Clarkson (17g, 15a), and nine from Rupp (3g, 6a).

“You know guys are going to turn away from you when you hit them. Our job is to get in the corners, bang and crash, and cycle the puck,” Clarkson said. “We’re going to try to build through it in the series and create more offense for the team.”

Part of the Devils success this year has been the ability of all four lines creating offense, something Clarkson credits to the team’s depth.

“There’s not many teams in the league that have depth we do, where you can have certain guys on your fourth line or certain guys on your third line. I think if a lot of guys on our team were on other teams, they’d be top two, top three line guys and here it’s third or fourth,” Clarkson said.

The experience and the versatility of the team are not lost on Rupp, either.

“We were going around the room and counting how many Cups each guy has and its pretty impressive. You rely on that, you rely on your skill, your youth, your energy. You rely on your grit, your goaltending. We’re able to lean on any one of those crutches,” Rupp said.

The deeper the Devils go into the playoffs, the more they will be able to rely on the toughness of Rupp and Clarkson, when grit alone is what’s needed to get the job done.

Mottau’s second goal of the season started the playoff scoring for the Devils on Wednesday, but Gleason’s tally pushed the series back to Carolina for Game Three even at one win apiece.

Gleason fired a one-timer from Joseph Corvo while Eric Staal screened Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur. The puck bounced past the goalie 2:40 into the overtime session.

“It was high, it went off somebody’s leg or skate. I don’t know,” Brodeur said.

The Hurricanes dominated the overtime period, outshooting New Jersey 4-0 and trapping the Devils in their own zone.

Ray Whitney and Matt Cullen each had repeated attempts at the net, including a shot by Whitney that bounced off the crossbar.

“That was closer to the game that we’ve been playing for a long time,” Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice said of his team’s overtime performance.

The Devils had to switch lines up at the end of the second period and throughout the rest of the game when captain Jamie Langenbrunner left the game with an unspecified lower-body injury.

Patrik Elias moved from the second line to the first with Zach Parise and Travis Zajac, and Brian Rolston shifted from third line to second with Brian Gionta and Dainius Zubrus, forcing the fourth line out of the rotation.

“We prefer a three line rotation over the course of the regular season, so I’d say maybe that evened the game,” Maurice said.

The Devils looked out of place without Langenbrunner, and although the team had shaken up lines throughout the season, adjusting to the new rotation seemed difficult.

“When you’re used to playing with someone for that long and to mix it up and constantly changing on the bench at the same time,” defenseman Paul Martin said. “Guys should know what they’re doing but obviously the chemistry is not there when you’re not playing with the guys you usually play with.”

The first line of Langenbrunner, Zajac and Parise worked well in the first period, but a disallowed goal may have been the deciding factor in pushing the game to extra time.

Travis Zajac knocked a shot by Langenbrunner down and into the net with a high stick at 10:18 in the first while the Devils were on a power play. A referee watched Zajac’s stick climb above the crossbar to bat at the puck, and immediately waved the goal off for high-sticking.

Not letting themselves get wrapped up in the no-goal, the Devils did score on the power play at 10:44, when Martin fired a shot from the right point and Parise deflected the puck into the top left corner of the net for a 1-0 lead.

New Jersey had seven more power play opportunities, but was unable to connect.

“We were able to get the puck in and get opportunities, we just weren’t able to capitalize,” Martin said.

Devils coach Brent Sutter agreed with the quality of the power play, but felt the missed chances were a bigger part of the game.

“You look at it now, it would’ve been nice to get another one or two on it. Still, our power play was still pretty good. We still had scoring chances on it, we created some things on it,” Sutter said.

With the series tied at 1-1, both teams travel to Carolina on Saturday for Sunday’s Game Three. New Jersey has not played its best at the RBC Center in Raleigh, N.C., losing both regular season games played there this season.

“We reset. We know we’re facing a great hockey team in Carolina. It wasn’t going to be a cakewalk,” Brodeur said.

The Devils will need to win at least one game to regain a true home-ice advantage the rest of the series.

“You have to win on the road in the playoffs. We have nothing to feel bad about. We played hard here tonight against a very good hockey team,” Sutter said. “Yeah, you lose home ice, and you go down there and you have to get it back. If you want to have success you have to win on the road, too.”

Games Three and Four will be played in North Carolina, and then the series returns to the Prudential Center for Game Five on Thursday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m.

Until then, it will be a long trip to Raleigh, where the Devils will try to everything the Hurricanes can do, but a little bit better.

Toronto scored three goals in the first period off of Devils miscues to start them on a 4-1 victory in Newark.

“Three straight goals, you can’t let it happen,” coach Brent Sutter said.

The Devils outshot the Maple Leafs 48-18, but turnovers in their own zone and solid play by Toronto goalie Martin Gerber prevented New Jersey from winning a team-record 50^th game and clinching the Atlantic Division.

Half-way through the first period, defenseman Colin White was unable to clear the puck out from behind goaltender Martin Brodeur. His giveaway ended up in the glove of Mikhail Grabovski, who dropped the puck and scored from the slot.

Moments later, Brian Rolston turned the puck over in the neutral zone, and Boyd Devereaux swooped in to grab it. Devereaux fed Jamal Mayers in the middle of the ice, and Mayers slid the puck over to Jeffrey Hamilton, who fired into the top right corner of the net.

The third Maple Leaf goal came at 15:56 of the first, when Christian Hanson scored on a weak-side rebound off of a shot by Jason Blake. There was not a single red jersey surrounding Hanson, whose tally was the first of his career.

“When someone makes a mistake, you try to bail them out. Today it wasn’t the case,” Brodeur said.

Toronto gave New Jersey an ample opportunity to end the period on a positive note when, while Luke Schenn was already in the penalty box for tripping Bobby Holik,  Jay Harrison got a high-stick under Brian Gionta’s visor, drawing blood. Harrison took the automatic four-minute double-minor penalty, giving the Devils a 5-on-3 advantage for 37 seconds.

New Jersey fired several shots against Gerber, and Brendan Shanahan had two open looks at the net, but shot into the only part of the net being blocked by Gerber.

“I’m sure Shanny would want that one back on the 5-on-3,” Langenbrunner said.

The restless fans showed their displeasure at the home team not capitalizing on a golden opportunity, although hope was restored in the second period, while Harrison was still in the penalty box.

Paul Martin poked the puck out from a Leaf, and fed Jamie Langenbrunner in the right circle. With two seconds remaining on the power play, Langenbrunner found an opening and slid the puck five-hole under Gerber.

“We definitely still had a mountain to climb, but we were heading in the right direction. We had been shooting pretty well and creating some opportunities, making them taking penalties. We thought we were ready for the third period, thinking we’d shut them down and go. And then we made a mistake that ended up in our head again, and from there it was definitely tough sledding,” Langenbrunner said.

That fourth goal came 1:34 into the third period when defensemen Johnny Oduya and Mike Mottau were caught up behind the net, and another failed clear-out turned into a goal.

Niklas Hagman passed the loose puck out from behind Brodeur to John Mitchell, who was waiting at the left post for an easy shot.

“I missed the shot. I was moving but it slid between my pads,” Brodeur explained.

Despite outshooting the Leafs 13-4 in the final period, New Jersey lost a chance to take more momentum into the playoffs.

The Devils’ disappointment in their play hung over the locker room, as well as a feeling of apprehension about the post season.

“Right now, we’re not thinking about clinching the division, we’re thinking about not playing well enough to be two games from the playoffs,” Holik said. “Winning the division important? Yeah. Playing well in the playoffs more important? Yeah … Right now we have more on our plate than just winning the division.”

The final two courses on the Devils’ plate are an away game in Ottawa on Thursday and the regular-season finale at home against Carolina Saturday afternoon.

Currently, New Jersey is sitting in third place in the Eastern Conference, and would match up against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the playoffs, but there is still a possibility Carolina or Philadelphia could be in the sixth spot.

Against any of those teams, for a chance to win, New Jersey will need to find a way to play 60 good minutes of hockey again like they did for most of the regular season.

Fifty-six seconds into the second period, down 1-0, starting goalie Kevin Weekes stopped a routine dump-in shot. What wasn’t routine was Weekes not getting up and not lifting himself off the ice.

“When he got hurt, he was down. Usually you get hurt you’re able to see his face. I went back because I didn’t have my mask with me it was in the locker room. I told Matty to get my mask and after that I was like, ‘Did he get up?’ and ‘No he’s still down.’ So now I figure, let’s take the baseball cap off and put the work helmet on,” Brodeur said.

Weekes was helped off the ice by Dainius Zubrus and Mike Mottau, not moving his left leg at all as he headed to the locker room.

Brodeur stopped the first shot he saw from Lukas Krajicek, but the Lightning’s power play five minutes into the second proved to be more difficult to handle.

Steven Stamkos scored from the left faceoff hash marks after Martin St. Louis, Matt Lashoff and he executed text-book perfect puck cycling on the man advantage. In three passes, the Devils penalty kill unit was cleared out of the way for Stamkos to have a clear shot at Brodeur.

Being down 2-0, the recent incarnation of the Devils would have looked as flat as a sheet of Plexiglas. But the Devils stayed together, and the fate of luck started to return to their favor.

Brendan Shanahan had a wrist shot from the left circle that hit the crossbar and bounce off the back of Tampa goalie Karri Ramo. Ramo covered the puck behind him and swiped the puck out of the way. Play continued despite video replays looked like the puck crossed the goal line while it was under Ramo’s glove.

Tampa Bay’s effort to clear the shot out of their zone took a funny bounce off the boards and almost careened back into an empty net. Ramo threw his stick at the puck to knock it out of harm’s way, an automatic penalty shot.

At 13:05, the officials reviewed Shanahan’s first shot attempt, and if it were a goal there would have been no penalty shot awarded, but video was inconclusive. Coach Brent Sutter sent Shanahan to take the penalty shot.

Shanahan took the puck straight up the ice to a thunderous standing ovation, and without a tricky move or a slight of hand, he shot the puck straight between the legs of Ramo to get the Devils back in the game at 2-1.

“We’re just waiting for a break and something to feel good about. I was happy to be in that situation,” Shanahan said.

The other Devils were also happy the veteran was in that situation.

“Shanny’s goal really seemed to energize the bench and really take a little bit of weight off our shoulders,” Captain Jamie Langenbrunner said. “I think Shanny’s goal kind of brought us back together a little bit. When you’re struggling like we were, unfortunately it’s tough to be around each other a little bit. It’s hard for everybody. That goal got us really excited and back together and I think hopefully it’ll catapult us back in the right direction and we’ll roll from there.”

With new-found confidence and camaraderie, New Jersey continued to make detailed plays that set them up for success.

Less than two minute later, Tampa Bay turned the puck over in the neutral zone, and Jay Pandolfo, filling in for the injured Patrik Elias, skated in against two Lightning defenders but was unbothered. Pandolfo skated to the front of the crease and roofed a shot over Ramo to tie the game at two.

Pandolfo has only been seen in 12 of the last 33 games since the arrival of Shanahan to the club. The long-time Devil has stayed with team mentally and physically, preparing to help at any point.

“It was great. He’s been one of the best teammates a guy can have, a team could have. To see him get a little success in obviously a tough year for him, and the way he’s handled it is I guess what we can expect from Pando. Coming out of the line up but still working as hard as he does to keep himself ready and ready to go when he’s given a chance. He scored a huge goal and it was great to see,” Langenbrunner said with a smile.

The captain himself was ready to jump in the scoring, and with less than a minute and a half to go in the second, Langenbrunner found an open spot to Ramo’s right and fired a shot that deflected off the goaltender’s stick, giving New Jersey its first lead of the night.

The game would not be that easy for the home team, though.

With just under three minutes gone in the third period, Johnny Oduya whiffed on a one-timer opportunity, and Tampa’s Ryan Malone swiped the puck away and took the puck coast-to-coast. Malone took a backhand shot that went over Brodeur to tie the game up again.

“I just felt it wasn’t going to be easy. It couldn’t be. To get a win after a six game losing streak … We went in to the third period up 3-2, and you just had a feeling it wasn’t going to be 4-2, 5-2, 6-2. It was going to be one of those you have to earn,” Shanahan said.

The Devils kept working, putting in enough effort to outshoot the Lightning 27-10 in the second and third periods.

New Jersey took the advantage again at 10:35. With a faceoff in the offensive zone, Travis Zajac won the draw and pushed the puck back to Paul Martin at the point. Martin passed to Parise on the right wing, who fired a shot at the net. Zajac, screening Ramo, tipped the puck across the crease to Langenbrunner, who was ready to put the puck behind the goaltender.

Back and forth it went, and with six minute left in regulation, Tampa struck back when a shot from Matt Pettinger bounced off Brodeur and straight to Martins Karsums, who was ready for the rebound.

“They got a couple shots early and scored a goal. After that they didn’t get any shots, and then got a breakaway goal. I felt something bounce in front of me and they get an empty net goal. I couldn’t wait for that game to end,” Brodeur explained about his evening.

He didn’t have to wait much longer.

One minute, twenty one seconds into the overtime session, Zajac and Parise teamed up to win the game.

“I guess we caught them on a line change there, and Paul (Martin) got me the puck, and me and Zack, we sort of had a 2-on-1 there. He drove the net and I was able to slide it across to him and he was able to put it away,” Zajac said.

Parise had a little different take on his 43^rd goal of the season.

“(Travis) yelled at me to go there. I came over to him and he yelled at me to go the net, and I did, and that was a great pass by him. It was unbelievable,” Parise said.

No matter who takes the credit, the goal revitalized a team that looked like it was repeating the late-season slide of last year that derailed any momentum going into the playoffs.

The Devils have four remaining games to continue the winning trends, including a game Saturday in Buffalo against a Sabres team fighting for the playoffs.

“You need something to get you going in the right direction hopefully tonight will be it. We have a tough game tomorrow against a team that needs every point they can get, so it’ll be a tough battle for us,” Langenbrunner said.

New Jersey proved on Friday that the battle isn’t out of them yet.

Sutter could have been referring to a few different things happening in the Devils organization.

The win over Phoenix marked a team-record ninth straight home win, which comes after the team has clinched its 17^th straight winning season and 12^th straight 40-win season.

New Jersey is in second place in the Eastern Conference with 91 points, and has 15 more games to reach the 100 point plateau.

Individually, Martin Brodeur is one win away from tying the all-time record for career wins, making 26 saves against the Coyotes for his 550^th career victory.

Zach Parise notched his 40^th goal of the season 18 seconds into the game, giving the league’s second-leading goal scorer a 40-goal, 40-assist season.

All four lines scored against the Coyotes, and the defense is a collective +25 over the last seven games.

Sutter was not kidding when he said that “things” can be accomplished.

Standing in the path of the storming Devils were the extremely young Phoenix Coyotes.

To put in perspective how young the Coyotes are, the team’s average age is 25.68, with Ken Klee (37), Shane Doan (32), Steven Reinprecht (32) and Ed Jovanovski (32) being the team’s elder statesmen.

On the Devils, the age of 32 would make you a junior senator.

New Jersey used that experience to control the puck and the game from the beginning.

With the early 1-0 lead, defenseman Johnny Oduya pushed the puck up the right wing to John Madden at 2:56. Madden stuck his stick out and tipped the past goaltender Josh Tordjman to extend the lead.

“I got pretty lucky. Johnny Oduya made a great play to get us on net. I was going hard to the net, I actually thought their goalie was going to poke-check the puck before I got there so I stuck my stick out hoping I would beat him to it and I found the lane on that shot and I was pretty lucky,” Madden explained.

Phoenix made things interesting in the first period when Dainius Zubrus was called for a double-minor high sticking penalty when his stick caught Jovanovski in the mouth at 8:58.

Less than a minute later, Devils’ defenseman Colin White attempted to clear the puck out of the New Jersey zone with his skate, but Scottie Upshall took the puck away and fired past Brodeur, who was still recovering from stopping a previous shot.

The score remained 2-1 through the end of the first period, despite the Devils out shooting the Coyotes 16-5.

“It helps when guys are scoring goals and you don’t have to worry about the next goal being maybe a game-changer,” Brodeur said.

The Devils used the middle of the second period to insure their lead and remove any pressure from their goaltender.

Zubrus fired a one-timer from the right circle off of a backwards pass from Brendan Shanahan. Tordjman did not have a chance.

“Once Shanny got it, he cycled it quickly, and he put it on his backhand with a lot of guys around him. I bounced off and he read what I was going to do and put it right on my tape, so it was an awesome play by him,” Zubrus said.

Turnovers were key to New Jersey’s control of the game. The Devils took the puck away 11 times from the Coyotes, using the puck control to get a head start on the offense.

At 13:03, Brian Gionta and Patrick Elias forced an odd-man rush, and Gionta on the left side passed the puck through the wide open middle of the ice to Elias on the right. Elias fired a wrister that Tordjman initially stopped, but the puck took a bounce and trickled into the net.

Sutter had switched up his second and third lines during the second period of Tuesday’s game against Calgary, moving Zubrus to the third line with Shanahan and David Clarkson and bringing Brian Rolston up to the third line to center Gionta and Elias.

Another recent development in the Devils game plan has been using Rolston at the point for one of the power play lines instead of a defenseman. That move paid off for New Jersey’s fifth and final goal of the game.

Upshall was penalized for hooking at 3:39 in the third period, and at 4:41 Dmitri Kalinin put the puck over the glass and was called for a delay of game penalty, giving New Jersey a 5-on-3 situation for 55 seconds.

It only took 18 seconds for Rolston to fire a shot from the left point that went on net. Travis Zajac was ready on the opposite side and pushed in the rebound for his 19^th goal of the season.

With the game in hand, the Coyotes got frustrated and began to instigate the Devils.

Clarkson crashed the Phoenix net with only six minutes to go, and the Coyotes took exception, shoving Clarkson around after the whistle. But it was Clarkson who ended up in the penalty box for roughing.

Immediately after serving his time, Clarkson got on the ice and found Brandon Prust, who had already fought Bryce Salvador in the second period, and began an altercation. Clarkson got in the majority of blows on Prust, and once the two were separated, they immediately reported to their respective locker rooms to serve their five minute penalties.

The Coyotes seemed to be invigorated by their teammates’ boxing match, and Steven Reinprecht tried to make the score more respectable at 17:52 by putting the puck past Brodeur.

But the comeback attempt was thwarted, and the Devils did reach nine straight wins at home, the longest current streak in the league.

“We certainly have been a focused group here through this. I still think it’s a very good accomplishment to do what we’ve done, but we’re not patting ourselves on the back. There’s a lot of hockey left to be played here. We want to be a good team down the stretch,” Sutter said.

The Devils go on the road this weekend to face the Montreal Canadiens, Brodeur’s hometown team, on Saturday. If New Jersey wins with Brodeur in net, he will tie Patrick Roy’s career win record.

New Jersey then returns to the Prudential Center for a St. Patrick’s Day game with the Chicago Blackhawks, a possibility for Brodeur to make history at home.

If Brodeur does take the record on Tuesday, they may have to switch the holiday to “St. Marty’s Day.”

In a game that some predict may be a Stanley Cup Final preview, the Flames took an early lead while the Devils continued to figure out what the rarely-seen Western Conference opponent had in store.

“That’s a pretty patient team. When you play teams you don’t see often, you don’t know what they’re going to do,” said Zach Parise.

Trade deadline acquisition Ollie Jokinen, one of the biggest names involved at the deadline, continued to make a positive impact for the Flames, scoring at 10:22 in the first.

Jokinen positioned himself on the far post, and was able to put a pass from David Moss behind Martin Brodeur.

Down 1-0, New Jersey began to respond with increased energy and physicality.

Mike Rupp and Andre Roy dropped gloves at 12:58 after Rupp hit Roy into the side boards. Rupp, who was out of the line up for the previous five games, over powered Roy and sent the Prudential Center into a frenzy.

When asked about how Rupp responded to returning to the lineup, Head Coach Brent Sutter said he was pleased.

“Exactly what I wanted. We need that aggression and we need that physicality, and I’m not talking about the fight. I’m talking about finishing checks,” Sutter said.

Despite having to switch up the forward lines because of Rupp’s time in the penalty box, the Devils tied Calgary in shots on goal by the end of the period.

“Later in the first period, we started moving better. In the second period, our game went to another level,” explained Head Coach Brent Sutter.

At 5:10 in the second period, with the Flames on a power play, defenseman Colin White cleared the zone and had Jamie Langenbrunner with him on a odd-man rush.

White brought the puck up the left side of the ice, and passed to Langenbrunner in the slot. Langenbrunner fired, and the puck bounced pass goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff to tie the game.

“Whitey was able to freeze the ‘D’, and I was able to get a quick shot off,” said Langenbrunner. “I got a pretty good shot off there.”

The goal marked the 22^nd of the season for the Devils’ captain and the 11^th shorthanded goal of the season by New Jersey.

The special teams did it again for the Devils at 18:01 in the period.

On the power play, Niclas Havelid passed the puck from the point to the left face-off circle, where Brendan Shanahan was waiting. With Dainius Zubrus and Brian Rolston positioning themselves on each post, Shanahan threw the puck on net, and while Kiprusoff was sprawled in the crease, Rolston controlled the rebound and scored on a wide open net.

“Brendan made a really smart play. He found the seam to put the puck towards the net. He was patient there. That’s why he’s so effective,” Sutter said of Shanahan’s assist.

The secondary assist for Havelid marked his first point as a Devil in his second game with the team.

With a 2-1 lead, it did not take long in the third period for the Devils to establish their control of the game.

With just over a minute gone in the third, a pile-up occurred in front of the Flames net. Langenbrunner pulled the puck out and fired a shot from the right side that was saved, but Parise was able to poke the puck under Kiprusoff before he fell on top of the goaltender.

The goal was reviewed, but was upheld after video judges deemed the puck had crossed the red line before Parise toppled onto Kiprusoff.

Kiprusoff was pulled in favor of Curtis McElhinney after the goal, ending his night allowing three goals on 28 shots.

At the other end, Brodeur was challenged often but, after the first goal allowed, he stopped opportunity after opportunity.

With 4:33 gone in the third, Jamie Lundmark had two point blank shots on Brodeur, who stacked his pads make the saves. That would be his biggest challenge until the final moments of play.

Calgary made the game a 3-2 final with .9 seconds left. With White in the penalty box for a delay of game and the Flames having an empty net, Curtis Glencross put the puck past Brodeur as the final buzzer sounded.

Brodeur finished with 35 saves on 37 shots faced.

When asked if he was upset with the last second goal, Brodeur responded, “A little, you don’t like to get scored on, but it doesn’t matter. We’re here to win.”

The team first approach gave Brodeur his 549^th career win, two short of Patrick Roy’s record. His first opportunity to tie the record will come on Saturday in Montreal, his hometown.

But that would mean the Devils would need to continue to win, a “snowball” effect in the right direction.

Martin Brodeur, Jamie Langenbrunner and Brian Gionta all achieved career milestones in a 3-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers Sunday afternoon.

Brodeur reached the 100 career shutout plateau, only the second goaltender ever to reach that mark. He was stellar Sunday, stopping 27 shots in his third game back from injury.

Brodeur now has three shutouts to go before tying Terry Sawchuk’s all-time record, and six wins away from tying Patrick Roy’s all-time wins record.

“It’s remarkable. It really is,” said Devils Coach Brent Sutter. “Marty is a special player and he’s been able to rise to the occasion.”

His teammates also rose to the occasion against the Flyers, treating the crowd to a fast start for the third game in a row.

Nearly four minutes into the game, Zach Parise found Langenbrunner in the left circle and Langenbrunner put the puck in the net for his 200th career goal.

The Devils’ offense was sparked by the defensemen moving the puck up the ice more aggressively than opponents are used to.

“Good defense is good offense, and good defense isn’t just when you’re in your own zone. Good defense is how you play in your zone but also how you forecheck and how you create opportunities in your offensive zone,” explained Sutter.

Thirty-seven seconds into the second period, Johnny Oduya rifled a shot and Brian Gionta was able to redirect the shot behind Flyers goalie Martin Biron for his 300^th career point.

“Johnny made a great play getting it through to the net. It makes things a lot easier for us when the D is getting it through. Just tried to get in position and tipped it by him,” described Gionta.

Oduya, playing plus-nine hockey during the three-game homestand along with Paul Martin, was rewarded for his aggressive offensive play in the third period.

Brendan Shanahan dug the puck out of the corner and fed a wide-open David Clarkson in the middle of the ice. Clarkson saw Oduya flying up the ice and made a tape-to-tape pass, allowing Oduya to get past the last defender and fire a shot from the slot. Biron could not get to the puck in time.

Biron made 39 saves on 42 shots Sunday when every Devils player on the ice with the exception of Bryce Salvador got a shot on goal. Parise, Gionta and Langenbrunner each had five scoring attempts.

On the other end, the Devils blocked 15 shots, including five by Oduya and three by Salvador.

Brodeur only saw 27 shots, including only six in the second period.

“He does a good job stopping that first one, then it’s up to us to let him see it or not let it go through at all, and when it happens to go through he does a good job getting it to places where we can get it, and we’re trying to get the puck up and out of the zone as quick as we can,” Martin said about playing in front of Brodeur.

Despite the small amount of shots Brodeur faced, he was more challenged against Philadelphia than he had been the previous two games.

In the first period, about half way through, Brodeur found himself on the left post as the puck was being moved around to his right side. He dove over onto his right side to stop the puck, leaping off of his skates and landing hard on the ice.

At 15:42 in the first, Scottie Upshall of the Flyers tested Brodeur from the right wing, and was able to try again on the rebound, but Brodeur stopped both shots.

At 14:14 in the third period, Brodeur made a terrific save on Mike Knuble, twisting his body to entrap the puck. The Devils turned the puck over right in front of the net, and

Knuble swiped it up and put it on goal from the left post.

As the final horn sounded, the Devils soaked up the cheers of the home crowd for the last time until March 10, when they return from a road trip to face the Calgary Flames.

The Devils were 1-2 on their last road trip, getting shut out twice.

“We weren’t happy with the Southern road trip obviously, those three games we didn’t play very well. But this week we’ve been playing pretty good hockey and so we just have to carry it through,” Gionta said.

If the Devils are able to continue the current level of play, expect them to roar straight through to the playoffs.