Devils beat Thrashers in shootout to win 7th in a row

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New Jersey Devils surged to their seventh successive win on Sunday after Brian Gionta's

shootout goal gave them a 3-2 home victory over the Atlanta Thrashers.

Todd White opened the scoring on the powerplay at 14:51 to stake Atlanta to a 1-0 lead but Sergei Brylin levelled the score just before the end of the period.

John Madded put the Devils 2-1 up in the second before Ilya

Kovalchuk scored his 22nd of the season to force overtime.

Gionta scored the only goal of the shootout, lifting a backhander past Atlanta netminder Johan Hedberg.

"(I) saw that he got committed out too far," Gionta told reporters after seeing Hedberg make a glove save on an earlier attempt by the Devils' Zach Parise.

"So, I just tried getting some speed and beating him back to that (left) post."

Devils netminder Martin Brodeur made 23 saves, including four in overtime, and had three more in the shootout. He preserved a scoreless overtime with a glove save off a shot by Marian Hossa with 1:49 remaining in the extra period.