Devils erupt in 4-1 win over Flyers; series tied

He clearly wasn't happy about the goals. And he was probably angry with Philadelphia's offensive ineptness, as well.

At the end of the game, Claude Giroux stopped Bryzgalov for a brief chat before he was greeted by the rest of the team. Giroux has emerged as the leader of the team and whatever he was telling the goalie, Bryzgalov seemed to agree with, mostly nodding his head.

"Bryz was phenomenal tonight, but we have to do a better job in front of him," coach Peter Laviolette said. "We were not skating the way we needed to be, but I don't think it was because of the fact that we were relying on him to win a game for us."

The Flyers entered with an NHL postseason-high 34 goals, but failed to generate much offense after a move-the-puck first 10 minutes.

Read scored from a tough angle outside the circle to beat Brodeur for the fast 1-0 lead. But it didn't hold up.

Not even Giroux and Danny Briere could spark the Flyers. Each tick of the clock in the second period was like watching a no-hitter to see if the Flyers would finally put the puck on Brodeur. With 1:27 left in the period, the Flyers broke through for a shot and they only took one more.

Brodeur, who had 19 saves, joked he needed an "old man's chair" to sit and rest.

"I got lonely a little bit," he said.

The Devils outshot them 12-2 in the second, in fact. And to make matters worse, the Flyers opened and closed the period on the power play.

"That's the answer, they were just quicker on the loose pucks," Flyers forward Jaromir Jagr said. "Not only on the power play, but 5 on 5. They looked fresher. Everybody knows we didn't play very well. We need to play a lot better next game to have a shot."

The road win was New Jersey's third of the postseason.

"We knew, if we lost tonight, it wasn't going to look good for us," DeBoer said. "I'm not surprised to see us play the way we did."

Though clearly they missed Kovalchuk for long stretches. In his third season with the Devils, Kovalchuk has three goals in eight playoff games and remains day to day. He walked with a pad on his back after Sunday's 4-3 overtime, Game 1 loss, and walked around the locker room Monday at practice in Newark quite gingerly.

Kovalchuk, a former Atlanta Thrasher who had 37 goals and 83 points this season, won his first playoff series ever in New Jersey's Round 1 triumph over Florida. The Devils say Kovalchuk was injured in that first-round series.

Defenseman Peter Harrold, who had three points and five shots on goal in the postseason prior to Game 2, was moved up to a forward position to replace Kovalchuk's spot in Game 2, allowing Larsson to play defense. Harrold had four shots on 12 shifts up front.

"I couldn't get any better (of a) start," Larsson said, "with the goal and everything."

Notes: The Flyers were 0-for-5 on the power play, and are now 1-for-11 on the series. New Jersey had the league's top penalty-killing unit in the regular season. ... New Jersey has now won three of the last four games. ... Clarkson had 30 goals and 46 points in the regular season. ... Brayden Schenn had his fifth assist on Read's goal.