NEWARK — By 5 p.m. yesterday, hockey fans could barely see Wahab Ayerh's face between his hood and ski mask as the East Orange man waved gloved hands to guide them into parking spots.

He said cars started streaming into the J&L Parking lot at 4:30 p.m. where he was hired to help with volume during the New Jersey Devils' home opener against the Philadelphia Flyers.

On the corner, Ariel Fernandez of Newark spent his first day of work for J&L waving an orange flag to direct drivers into the lot."I can't feel my face," he said.

Newark businesses haven't seen this many hockey fans in a long time. A National Hockey League lockout delayed the start of the 2012-13 season by three months. It's been 228 days since the Devils last played a game there.

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Sold-out games bring more than 17,000 people into the arena and Ayerh said the crew at the corner of Mulberry and Lafayette streets -- literally steps away from the Prudential Center's doors -- probably wouldn't finish matching fans to vehicles until 11 p.m.

The fact that the first four Devils home games have already sold out is good news for the bars, restaurants, parking lots and other shops that have cropped up around the arena, said Bob Sommer, president of Rock Entertainment Management, which owns the Prudential Center.

Each sold-out game brings close to $160,000 of economic activity into Newark, according to a study prepared by the Devils that assumes fans, 95 percent of whom arrive from out of town, spend an average of $8 before they walk into the Prudential Center.

And season ticket sales have picked up in the past 10 days, said Sommer.

"We are thrilled with the start of the Devils' season at the Rock. Our fans seem to be as well," Devils majority owner Jeff Vanderbeek said in a statement. "It's time to drop the puck."

Ariel Fernandez of Newark directs cars into the J&L Parking lot on Lafayette St. outside the Prudential Center on the first home game for the Devils since the end o the player lockout.

At the end of the elevated walkway that connects Newark Penn Station to Gateway Plaza, Alison Hinder, co-owner of the Stadium Shop, was hoping fans would drop some cash on Devils merchandise.

As excited as she was to welcome fans back to Newark, she wishes she had been able to stock more inventory before last night's game. Decreased revenue during the three-month lockout has made it difficult for her to place orders.

"Since I wasn't able to catch up on my bills, all my orders were cancelled. It's hurting me now because the season is finally starting up," Hinder said. "I've tried reordering, but now I can't get anything."

She's not very optimistic about the rest of the season.

"We'll never recover from it. As much as we had a great season last year, some small businesses like ours are still paying off debt from last year," she said. "After missing three months of my main bread and butter, I'll be lucky if I can just skate through this year."

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At the Brick City Bar & Grill, across the street from the arena on Edison Place, the lockout wasn't so rough, said manager Bryan O'Hara.

"We didn't get into the business four years ago hoping on the business from the Devils next door. It's a luxury," he said. "And we do a good job of serving the city when they're not playing."

At 6 p.m., Brick City and its two neighbors, Edison Ale House and Loft 47, had lines of fans snaking out into the freezing weather.

"It's nothing new," O'Hara said of the crowds, "it's like riding a bike."

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