EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- The momentum of a coaching change dissipated for the Florida Panthers.
Playing their second game under coach Rick Dudley, the Panthers managed just two shots in the first period, yielded three goals in the second and were beaten, 3-1, by the New Jersey Devils, who extended their unbeaten streak to eight games.
As general manager, Dudley fired Mike Keenan early Sunday and replaced him behind the bench on an interim basis. Florida responded Tuesday, blanking first-place Tampa Bay as Dudley became the third straight Panthers' coach to record a shutout in his debut.
Like Keenan and Duane Sutter before him, Dudley could not make it two straight wins as Florida ran into the NHL's hottest team.
"They are a helluva team," Dudley said of the defending Stanley Cup champions. "If you make mistakes and don't execute properly, they're going to make you pay for it."
Patrik Elias scored on a power-play deflection 6:22 into the second period and Brian Gionta and Jay Pandolfo tallied 2 1/2 minutes apart to make it 3-0.
"We had a couple of opportunities where we could have scored more goals. We went to the net hard in the first and came up empty," Elias said. "But we didn't get down (and) our hard work early paid off in the second period."
Stephen Weiss beat Martin Brodeur on a rebound in the final minute of the period, but the Panthers could not cash in during a rare 6-on-3 advantage late in the third and fell to 3-6-1-3 in their last 13 trips to New Jersey.
"It's nice to have a two-goal cushion when you have one of those 6-on-3s against you," Brodeur said. "You don't see that too often. They weren't ready for it, either. They had so many guys open, they didn't know who to pass it to."
"Our 6-on-3 really needs a lot of work," Dudley joked.
Brodeur made 20 saves to help the Devils avenge a 2-1 home loss on October 22.
"They just made a coaching change and they got the GM behind the bench, so they're going to be two levels higher than they were last week," New Jersey coach Pat Burns said. "The difference for us now is that we're getting the breaks and when we get leads, we're holding them."
After opening the season 0-3-1 at home, the Devils are 4-0-1 in their last five games at the Continental Airlines Arena.
