When the Devils come to town, talk inevitably shifts from the opposition to New Jersey goaltender and sure-fire Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur.

But that isn't the case this week in Ottawa, where Brodeur's counterpart, Brian Elliott, is all the rage.

The NHL's reigning No. 1 star of the week made 24 saves for his fourth career shutout in the Senators' 3-0 win on Tuesday night, their seventh win in a row and first against the Devils in 10 meetings dating back to Oct. 27, 2007.

Elliott, who preserved his third shutout of the season with a pad save against Colin White with 45 seconds left in regulation, has won his past five games during which he has posted a 1.00 goals-against average.

"That was a team shutout," said Elliott. "Everybody just did a good job in front of me. They really didn't have anything and that makes it a lot easier on you in the net."

Brodeur, the league's all-time wins, shutout and minutes leader, was pulled by head coach Jacques Lemaire for the third time in 10 games after surrendering three goals on 12 shots in his 30th consecutive start.

Elliott's night was made easier by the work of the Senators defence, which gave him a clear look at most shots and didn't allow New Jersey many second chances.

Few chances

Lemaire felt his team didn't challenge Elliott.

"All our plays, they had hesitation," said Lemaire. "We're not skating the way we can skate and when that happens we're not as good with the puck, we don't create as well. We didn't get a lot of chances and most of them we made it easy for the goalie, we made it very easy."

Elliott has faced more than 30 shots just once in his last 17 starts and has 15 wins in 31 appearances, the latter number matching his total of last season.

The second-year NHL netminder was sharp early, making a blocker save on Zach Parise in the game's opening two minutes and denying the Devils' leading scorer again later in the period.

While Elliott and the defence was shutting down the New Jersey attack, Ottawa went on the offensive and established a strong forecheck against a Devils back line that was guilty of too many turnovers.

"We got some really timely goals from guys," said Senators forward Nick Foligno. "One of our focuses going into the game was making sure we got the lead and when we got that goal we fed off of it and went from there."

Alex Kovalev put the home side on the board midway through the first period. Foligno set up the play with a nice bit of cycling below the New Jersey goal line before he skated out from the corner and found Kovalev, who snapped a shot through Brodeur's legs to extend his points streak to seven games.

Goal waived off

Jonathan Cheechoo appeared to give Ottawa a 2-0 lead after defenceman Chris Phillips wired a shot off the post, but the rebound attempt was called off as it was ruled Cheechoo kicked the puck in.

But there was no denying Milan Michalek his 18th goal of the season with 78 seconds left in the opening period. He tipped in a shot by Chris Campoli, who received a gift when Devils blue-liner Mike Mottau put the puck on his stick on a failed clearing attempt.

Jason Spezza added his seventh goal of the season and fourth in as many games in the second period, even though replays indicated Filip Kuba's pass deflected off Mottau's left skate.

"Things are going well for us," said Spezza. "Winning breeds confidence and you can tell we're playing with confidence."

Yann Danis started the third period for the Devils (34-16-1) and turned aside all six shots he faced.

Lemaire said Brodeur was pulled because he will be playing against the Buffalo Sabres Wednesday night.

Ottawa raised its record to 29-21-4 and is five points shy of fourth-place Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference. The Penguins will host the Senators on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.

With files from The Canadian Press