This was more than a regular-season game for Martin Brodeur, more than another night at the rink, and his Devils teammates knew it. They threw themselves at every Penguins shot and played as if the Stanley Cup was being decided, all to make sure Brodeur reached the NHL record book again.

Brodeur broke Terry Sawchuk's 40-year-old record with his 104th career shutout, further strengthening his case to be considered the best goaltender to play the game, and the streaking New Jersey Devils had little trouble beating Pittsburgh 4-0 on Monday night.

Brodeur made 35 stops to surpass the coveted shutout record only two games after setting the NHL mark for regular-season appearances by a goaltender. The shutout record came in his 1,032nd game over 16 seasons, all with the Devils.

Now the question is how long Brodeur will own his latest and hardest-to-surpass record. Twenty-five years? Fifty? Forever? Until Brodeur came along, no other goalie was within 10 shutouts of Sawchuk, who last played in 1969-70.

"This record was held for so long, when you do break records and see how long they lasted, it's cool," Brodeur said. "Tying it was amazing and surpassing him, was a great honor for me to be in that position."

Brodeur has long been compared to the game's greats, and for obvious reasons _ no other current-day goalie can begin to compare to the 37-year-old, the only active player among the top 22 on the career shutouts list. He has three shutouts this season and six in his career against Pittsburgh. He broke the record two weeks after beating Buffalo 3-0 on Dec. 7 to tie it.

As the game ended, his teammates swarmed to congratulate him, and the remaining fans from the standing-room crowd of 17,132 applauded as a congratulatory message from Penguins owner Mario Lemieux was read on the public address system.

"It's great, but I wasn't focusing on it," Brodeur said. "I'm definitely happy it's passed and we can just go play, and I don't have to answer the questions about it."

Brodeur, the NHL's winningest goalie with 580 wins, is 23-8-1 this season.

"When it got down to 10 minutes, five minutes, everybody's thinking about it (the record)," teammate Zach Parise said. "We're on the ice when a lot of these records are happening and it's fun. ... I don't think much needs to be said. It's all self-explanatory, all the winning he's done, the shutouts, the (three Stanley) Cups. It's unbelievable."

Brodeur's latest shutout came only two days after he was pulled during a rare off night in New Jersey's 5-4 victory over Atlanta on Saturday. He left after allowing three goals in the first.