Brodeur injured in Devils' win over Thrashers

Martin Brodeur's left elbow injury overshadowed the New Jersey Devils' 6-1 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers on Saturday night.

Brodeur, one of the most durable players in the NHL, left the game after bruising his elbow in the second period.

Brodeur, eight wins shy of tying Patrick Roy's NHL record of 551 career victories, had played every minute of New Jersey's 10 games this season before he was hurt 6:38 into the second period. With the Devils leading 3-0, he did a split to make a sprawling stop, got up slowly clutching his left arm and skated off the ice .

Zach Parise scored two goals to help the Devils end a three-game losing streak and extend his goal-scoring string to a career-high six straight games.

Atlanta suffered its sixth straight loss in a game in which the Thrashers were barely competitive. Slava Kozlov scored for Atlanta at 6:30 of the third period off Brodeur's replacement, Kevin Weekes, to prevent its third shutout in 11 games.

Brodeur led the NHL in games played by a goalie the last two seasons with 78 and 77 appearances. The last time he was forced out of action was in 2005, when he was sidelined for six games due to a knee injury from Oct. 28 to Nov. 8.

In addition to closing in on Roy's records for wins and games played by a goalie, Brodeur also is five shutouts away from tying Terry Sawchuk's NHL career mark of 103.

Bergfors scored the goal as the Devils led 1-0 after a dominant first period in which they outshot the Thrashers 12-4. Bergfors got his first NHL point, shooting from the right circle while Dainius Zubrus provided an effective screen in front of Johan Hedberg at 14:10.

Hedberg made his second start of the season with Kari Lehtonen "under the weather" according to Thrashers officials, a scratch.

New Jersey blew the game open with five goals in the second period for a 6-0 lead.

In addition to the pair from Parise, New Jersey got tallies from Patrik Elias, Brian Gionta and Jay Pandolfo.