NEWARK, N.J. _ The Devils finally fought back.
A day after general manager Ray Shero called out his team, using words such as "resolve," "pushback," and "pride" as elements that needed to be better while saying the solution was simple _ "Play (bleeping) harder" _ the Devils took it out on the Flyers.
"He's 100 percent right," defenseman Ben Lovejoy said. "Ray is not one to come out and say something like that unless it's true. And it's true. The guys in this room, the coaching staff, players and management, we agree with him."
The Devils, displaying a physicality and, yes, a passion too often lacking over the past month, snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 4-0 win on Thursday night at Prudential Center, the first time they've shut out an opponent this season.
The Devils (13-13-7), who now face the daunting task of playing at Pittsburgh on Friday night after the Stanley Cup-champion Penguins were thrashed in Columbus on Thursday night by the NHL-leading Blue Jackets, played tight defense protecting their lead. And they got offensive production from the players they need it from as Adam Henrique and P.A. Parenteau each had a goal and an assist, Kyle Palmieri had a goal and Taylor Hall had an assist. The Devils were 2-for-6 on the power play.
Cory Schneider, who had allowed five goals in four of his last nine starts, made 16 saves for his 22nd career shutout and his first in 45 games, dating to Jan. 16 in a win at Arizona.
The Devils are still just 4-10-4 since Nov. 17 and have just two regulation wins in their last 19 games.
The Flyers (20-12-4), who came into the game on an 11-1-1 streak, were coming off Wednesday's 3-2 shootout win over the visiting Capitals.
Partly in response to Shero saying the Devils were being pushed around and partly because, hey, it's the Flyers, coach John Hynes _ given a "100 percent" vote of confidence by his boss _ inserted gritty fourth-liner Luke Gazdic and bruising defenseman Seth Helgeson, recalled earlier in the day from Albany (AHL).
On Wednesday, Shero said, "How many scrums have we been involved with? No one's mad at us?" That came after Hall, the team's best forward, was knocked down three times in a row on one shift in Tuesday's 5-1 loss to the Predators without a teammate stepping in.
But the Devils and Flyers combined for 46 penalty minutes in the first period alone in a crescendo of rising emotions.
The nastiness got underway for real at 13:48 as the Flyers' Brandon Manning took out Sergey Kalinin at the Devils' blue line. While Kalinin was being attended to on the ice, and ultimately went to the Devils' room _ though he returned in the second period _ Helgeson and Gazdic were in the midst of a melee between the remaining players on the ice, save the goalies. Those two, Manning and teammate Nick Cousins all wound up with roughing minors.
The first fighting majors were handed out at 16:30 as Dale Weise exchanged heavy punches with Helgeson. And after the first-period horn sounded, the Flyers' Wayne Simmonds knocked down Jon Merrill with a shoulder and Michael Cammalleri, in only the third fight of his 14-season NHL career, per hockeyfights.com, pummeled Cousins.
Meanwhile, the passion the Devils showed with their physicality also translated to the scoreboard.
Cammalleri's slap shot from high in the right circle deflected in off Parenteau's leg for a power-play goal at 7:40 of the first period. Continuing to apply pressure, Miles Wood, standing in the blue paint, knocked in the puck for a 2-0 lead at 13:26 of the first period after Henrique was stopped at the right post.
That became 3-0 in the tamer second period _ save for Simmonds' dangerous boarding penalty on Lovejoy at 8:31- as Hall, behind the crease, found Adam Henrique open in the low slot and Henrique roofed a shot past Anthony Stolarz.
The backup goalie replaced Steve Mason for the start of the second period after Mason faced eight shots.
