PHILADELPHIA — The New Jersey Devils are starting to get scary.
Even when their defense let them down a little and gave the Philadelphia Flyers the type of game they wanted in the opener of the Eastern Conference final on Sunday, the Devils still found a way to win — easily.
Petr Sykora and Bobby Holik scored in a 26-second span late in a three-goal first period and Martin Brodeur made 35 saves as the Devils used a rare offensive outburst to beat the Flyers 4-1 in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series.
Game 2 will be played in Philadelphia on Tuesday night before the series shifts to New Jersey for games on Thursday and Saturday.
"We won the game, but we didn't play as well as we would have liked," said Holik, whose goal snapped a 28-game playoff drought dating to a first-round series against Montreal in 1997. "We know we can't play every game like Game 6 against Toronto. This is a new series and the win is great, but there are things we can do better, and will do better."
The Flyers, who have managed to overcome adversity all season, used their speed to become only the second team to outshoot the Devils (36-24) in the playoffs this season.
However, the Flyers also made a couple of major mistakes and the Devils made all the little plays to make them pay.