Rookie Brian Elliott (30) is tested by Travis Zajac on Tuesday. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

New Jersey Devils netminder Scott Clemmensen reached the 20-win plateau Tuesday night, posting 21 saves in a 4-1 victory over the hometown Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Place.

Not bad, considering Clemmensen began the season in the AHL.

"My previous high coming into this year was three [wins]," he said.

"I don't think many people would have thought he would get 20 wins in the NHL this season, that's for sure," said Devils captain Jamie Langenbrunner, who had two goals.

Clemmensen had played a total of 28 NHL games when he was summoned from the minors to replace Martin Brodeur, who had surgery to repair a torn left biceps on Nov. 6.

Clemmensen is a sparkling 20-9-1 since he wrested the starting job from incumbent backup Kevin Weekes.

"It feels good," Clemmensen said. "Why stop at 20?

"There is more to go and you take it one game at a time. Hopefully, 20 can become 21 and then 22, 23 and so on and so forth."

Patrik Elias opened the scoring and Brendan Shanahan closed it out as the Devils (30-15-3) skated to their sixth straight win - a season high.

Travis Zajac provided two assists.

Alexandre Picard scored his sixth goal of the season on a power play in the second period for the Senators (16-22-7), who had notched points in each of their previous four outings (3-0-1).

'That is what a goal scorer does'

After Langenbrunner staked New Jersey to a 3-1 lead just 19 seconds into the third period, the Senators were given a glorious opportunity to mount a comeback when Shanahan received a double-minor penalty for high sticking at 5:42.

Ottawa failed to register a shot during the extended power play, and Shanahan made amends by snapping a shot by rookie Brian Elliott to make it 4-1 at 11:17.

Shanahan has scored twice in three games since the Devils signed him last Wednesday for $800,000 US.

"He has scored 600 and some goals in this league because he knows what to do with the puck in the offensive zone," Devils head coach Brent Sutter said. "That was a perfect shot.

"The two goals he has scored are goal-scoring goals. That is what a goal scorer does."

Elliott surrendered four goals on 23 shots in his sixth straight start since being promoted from the AHL on Jan. 9.

"It [starting] is obviously what you want, you want to be in that position," he said. "But you cannot have games like that as a team.

"I have to work my hardest to stay where I am. I'm going to continue to do that."

With files from the Canadian Press