It was Travis Zajac, skating freely around the Flyers' net, that gave the Devils an insurance goal Tuesday night and tie up the second round series. It has been Zajac that has given the Devils a dependable center with its star forward, Ilya Kovalchuk, injured and ineffective. And it's Zajac, whose play this postseason has been a bedrock for the team, that almost never made it back from an Achillies injury that could have cut his season short.

In early January, Zajac aggravated the injury that forced him to miss the first two months of the season, he had a decision to make whether to shut it down and start over next year.

"I was close," Zajac said. "After that setback the first thing I was thinking about was where I am in my career. As much as you want to come back and play, you gotta look out for the future. So, yeah, it was in the back of my mind. I think over time as I went through the process and felt better, we took our time. We knew that I probably could come back at some point in the season. I was lucky enough to get a few games here at the end of the year. Feeling good from then on it just kind of helped my confidence."

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Zajac returned in time to play seven regular season games, scoring just once. But so far in nine playoff games, he has a team-high five goals and eight points. He feels close to his peak form, so does coach Pete DeBoer.

The Devils are appreciative that he decided to fight it out. They would be without a key cog in the team that is tied 1-1 in the series with Philadelphia.

"We wouldn't be here without him," DeBoer said. "A guy who was at a crossroads where he could have stepped away and said let's go back at this next year. He worked and refused to take that road. He's been our most effective, our most consistent forward so far."

Mike Vorkunov: mvorkunov@starledger.com; twitter.com/Mike_Vorkunov