NHL Playoffs 2012: Breaking Down the Martin Brodeur-Ilya Bryzgalov Matchup

The New Jersey Devils’ 4-1 triumph over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday could prove to be a telling tone-setter as to the goaltending matchup and its influence on the balance of the series.

For the Devils’ Martin Brodeur, it was a thoroughly vintage victory with one goal against on a mere 20 shots faced. And it was a head-turning effort to silence the Flyers, who fell from ahead en route to defeat on their home ice.

With the series now a best-of-five and going back to the Prudential Center, the map of momentum points to Brodeur and Philadelphia counterpart Ilya Bryzgalov each beginning to flaunt their prime characteristics. One is sharp and stingy when his team needs him to be the most, while the other is worrisomely unpredictable.

Translation: New Jersey has a decisive upper hand in the game’s most critical position until any further notice is issued on the ice.

Entering Thursday night’s Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, Brodeur is 5-1 in these playoffs when allowing two goals or fewer.

His only true blemish was being pulled from Game 3 of the quarterfinals when he let a 3-0 edge slip away. And his skating mates have scored either three or four goals in each of their first five playoff wins.

Conversely, only once in eight 2012 Stanley Cup twirls has Bryzgalov confined the opposition to less than three strikes. The Flyers peerless strike force has bailed him out on four of those seven other occasions, but hit a wall Tuesday night in the form of Brodeur and his praetorian guards.

After blinking on his first test at 2:53 of the first period, the New Jersey netminder repelled 19 consecutive stabs and hardly rusted after facing only two in the middle frame.

At the other end, patience paid off after 25 vain shots within the first 40 minutes ultimately mollified Bryzgalov, who watched his 1-0 lead devolve into a 3-1 deficit on only nine third-period bids. The fourth New Jersey goal was tallied on an empty net.

In the process of drawing a 1-1 knot in their series, Brodeur’s Devils became the first team to confine the Flyers to a single goal in one 2012 playoff game. The last time Philadelphia was stifled to that extent was in a 2-1 loss to Florida on March 20.

Bryzgalov can usually bank on sufficient offensive support, but he could be crossing into a fatal phase where he absolutely must bank on it. If his veteran three-time champion adversary in the other cage continues to will his way to old-form performances, the Flyers backstop may need to cram to repress a growing pair of goat horns.

Either that or he might just give way to Sergei Bobrovsky.

While the Devils are not nearly as deep or explosive, Brodeur can one-up Bryzgalov in that he helps to manufacture offensive opportunities. Only five assists have been credited to goalies so far in the postseason, and Brodeur is the only masked man with two of them.

In addition, between New Jersey’s seven-game triumph over the Panthers and the first two installments of the ongoing bout with the Flyers, nine of the 19 goals Brodeur has allowed have come on the opposing power play.

Although, over their last two games at the Wells Fargo Center, the Devils penalty kill has gone 10-for-11 with their most important penalty killer stopping eight of Philadelphia’s nine power-play shots.

With the exception of Game 6 versus Pittsburgh, a 5-1 victory, Bryzgalov has authorized multiple even-strength tallies in every playoff twirl to date with the Flyers. And it is worth noting that he is presently going up against the best five-on-five team (1.70) left in the bracket.

From Game 3 onward, Bryzgalov’s task is to help himself and the Flyers play catch-up to Brodeur’s Devils, who simply have a multitude of upward trends working in their favor.