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Patrik Elias scored a breakaway goal and set up another for the New Jersey Devils, who beat the sloppy Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 on Wednesday night and completed a six-game season sweep of their Atlantic Division rivals.

That vaulted New Jersey into a first-place tie with the Penguins. Both teams have 87 points, but the Devils have played one fewer game. Fans chanted “You can’t beat us!” as the final seconds ticked down.

Elias helped on Dainius Zubrus’s brilliant goal in the first period that got New Jersey even, and scored in the second on New Jersey’s second breakaway during the same Penguins power play. That gave the Devils a 3-1 lead.

Defenceman Paul Martin, who returned to the lineup after missing 59 games because of a broken forearm, added a goal for the Devils in the first period. Zach Parise’s 33rd made it 4-1 and chased goalie Marc-André Fleury to the bench.

Martin Brodeur earned his 596th NHL victory, one year after breaking the league record of 551.

The defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins could place more blame on themselves than the beleaguered Fleury, who trudged down the tunnel after being yanked with 9:43 left in the second. New Jersey registered only one help on its first three goals, largely because Pittsburgh kept turning over the puck.

Pittsburgh, which played without star forward Evgeni Malkin (sore foot) is 5-2-1 since the Olympic break. The three losses have come in the past four games.

Chris Kunitz gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead 4:01 in. The Devils then roared back in their throwback red and green sweaters. Ruslan Fedotenko cut Pittsburgh’s deficit to 4-2 with 14:37 left.

The game took an hideous turn with 6:29 remaining when Devils forward Rod Pelley drove defenceman Alex Goligoski headfirst into the boards. The hit resembled one Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin delivered to Chicago’s Brian Campbell on Sunday that drew a two-game NHL suspension. Kris Letang charged right at Pelley, who received a major penalty for boarding.

Goligoski was shaken up, but returned.

New Jersey, which has won four of five, was outshot 26-19.

Elias intercepted a pass by Letang at the Penguins blue-line. With his back to the offensive zone, Elias sent a pass backward to Zubrus, who was skating toward him with steam. Zubrus charged alone into the Pittsburgh end, deked Fleury on to his back and scored to make it 1-1 with 9:09 left in the first.

Martin, out since breaking a forearm on Oct. 24 at Pittsburgh, place New Jersey ahead when he carried the puck into the Penguins zone and scored from the right circle with 1:42 left in the period.

The game truly turned when Devils forward David Clarkson was sent off for interference 1:30 into the second — the game’s first penalty.

Fleury made a spectacular save with his outstretched glove while rolling on to his back to stop Travis Zajac’s small-handed breakaway. That gave the Penguins only a brief reprieve. About 20 seconds later, Elias picked off defenceman Jordan Leopold’s pass at the Pittsburgh blue-line and raced the other way while Letang chased him.

Fleury couldn’t stop this rush, and Pittsburgh was down 3-1 at 3:09.

Parise finished Fleury’s night when he fought off defenceman Mark Eaton in the crease, took a pass from Zajac and scored from his knees. Rob Niedermayer sealed it with an empty-netter with 1:13 left.

Chris Bosh hit the game-winning shot with 2.1 seconds left as the Toronto Raptors rallied to beat the Atlanta Hawks 106-105 Wednesday, ending a five-game losing streak.

The shot was one of the few bright spots for Bosh, who shot an abysmal 6-for-19 and finished with just 14 points and 10 rebounds.

The other came in the second quarter, when a layup made him the first player in franchise history to reach the 10,000-point plateau.

More importantly, the basket helped the Raptors (33-33) slow their descent down the Eastern Conference standings. Once comfortably in fifth place, the Raps came in having dropped 10 of their last 11 to find themselves clinging to eighth in the conference.

Andrea Bargnani had 22 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Raptors.

Jamal Crawford had a season-high 33 points off the bench for the Hawks (42-24), who had won four straight and 10 of their last 13. Al Horford had 18 points and 14 rebounds while Mike Bibby added 17 points and Maurice Evans 16.

Spotty shooting

Trailing by three at the half, Atlanta used back-to-back threes from Bibby and Evans, along with some spotty Toronto shooting, to help build an eight-point lead late in the third quarter. Evans added another three in the final minute to place the Hawks up 86-75 entering the fourth quarter.

A Bosh jumper cut the lead to five, but Evans buried an uncontested 25-footer to end the Raptors’ run. That kickstarted a 7-0 run, restoring Atlanta’s double-digit advantage.

The Raptors rallied again, a Bargnani three making it 101-97 with 2:57 remaining. Sonny Weems hit a long jumper to make it a two-point game, and the teams traded baskets before Josh Smith deflected a rebound out of bounds to give Toronto possession with 22.6 seconds left.

Hedo Turkoglu drew a foul, but made just one of two free throws. He was redeemed when Toronto recovered the rebound and called timeout with 14 seconds left, and Bosh hit the go-ahead 16-foot fadeaway to send the Air Canada Centre crowd of 18,441 into hysterics.

Crawford’s off-balance three-pointer as time expired was well off the mark.

DeMar DeRozan had 19 points for the Raptors, while Turkoglu added 16.

Josh Smith chipped in 14 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists for Atlanta.

Atlanta shot 48 per cent to Toronto’s 45, while the Raptors finished with a 45-42 rebounding advantage.

Intensity on defence

Toronto came in having allowed 113.8 points per game during their losing streak, and Raptors head coach Jay Triano said prior to the game that he wanted to see his team show more intensity on defence.

The Raptors didn’t get the message early on. Bibby buried a three-pointer on Atlanta’s first possession, and a Smith layup place the Hawks up 7-0 just 1:11 in, spurring a chorus of boos and forcing Triano to call a timeout.

The brief respite energized the home team, particularly Bargnani, whose uncontested three gave the Raptors a 13-12 lead. DeRozan added a breakaway dunk and a three-point play during Toronto’s 21-5 run, and finished with 12 points in the quarter as the Raptors led 30-25 after one.

A Bosh layup early in the second quarter sent him past the 10,000-point plateau, earning him a standing ovation from the crowd. Toronto fed off that energy, with Turkoglu and Jarrett Jack hitting running layups to place the Raptors up by 15.

Crawford followed with a pair of three-pointers, and an Evans three cut the deficit to five. Reggie Evans helped Toronto stem the tide, making a pair of late layups en route to a 59-56 halftime advantage.

Some construction workers hired by the Canadian Red Cross to help rebuild communities following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami were left stranded and never paid for their work, according to an investigation by Radio-Canada.

Canadians were among the most generous in their response to the disaster, donating more than $360 million to relief efforts.

The village of Mata, known by locals as Kanada village, was rebuilt by the Canadian Red Cross. (CBC)As part of reconstruction efforts, the Red Cross built nearly 6,000 houses in 22 villages in the Indonesian province of Aceh.

The houses were built primarily by workers who were recruited about 2,000 kilometres away in Java and hired through sub-contractors and agents.

But some of those middlemen vanished with the labourers’ pay, leaving hundreds of men hungry and trapped far from home, according to an investigation by the Radio-Canada program Enquête.

“It is the inconvenient truth of the tsunami operation that the men were being trafficked and abused,” said Virgil Grandfield, a former information officer for the Canadian Red Cross.

Grandfield, who resigned from the organization because he was appalled by the treatment of the workers, has spent the last six months trying to get justice for them.

‘If the person who place that loonie or toonie in that can, if they knew what was happening, if they knew what I saw, they would be livid.’— Former Canadian Red Cross employee Virgil Grandfield

“If the person who place that loonie or toonie in that can, if they knew what was happening, if they knew what I saw, they would be livid,” said Grandfield.

In 2007, Grandfield said, he was sent to deal with a problem in the district of Calang, a day’s journey from the capital of Banda Aceh.

A Red Cross field manager had been taken hostage because people were upset that construction had stopped for several months, Grandfield said.

He said two field officers told him workers were leaving the site because they were not being paid or fed. Local charities, government officials and even those living in new homes confirmed they knew the workers were being ripped off.

“For us here, no matter how poor we are, we always have something to eat, we received aid,” said one woman who identified herself as Anidar. “They have no aid.”

Grandfield said he was approached by the workers themselves in the village of Mata. The village, entirely rebuilt by the Red Cross, is called Kanada village by locals.

Complained to Red Cross

When Grandfield complained to the Red Cross about the situation, he said, he was initially accused of having made up the tale.

After Grandfield submitted some written reports, the Red Cross questioned one of its local engineers to investigate.Virgil Grandfield says he quit the Red Cross because of the appalling treatment of the workers. (CBC)

The report concluded that 150 workers did leave one site, but that it was just over a misunderstanding.

“In one occasion, basically the one, the foreman, had chose not to pay his employees and rather to leave — which obviously came to our attention very quickly,” said the Red Cross’s director of international operations, Jean-Philippe Tizi.

The Red Cross said it reminded its main contractor, Wika, of its obligation to pay its workers.

Three months after he reported the problem, Grandfield said, he learned the workers’ situation had worsened.

He said he immediately pressed the president of the Canadian Red Cross and the organization’s board of governors to address the situation.

Finally, the Red Cross hired the firm Ernst & Young to conduct an independent audit of the situation — a process that would take months. The audit was finally released in August 2008, eight months after Grandfield had first told the problem.

‘Canadians should be very proud of the work that was completed … we housed thousands of families.’— Pam Aung Thin, Red Cross director of public affairs and government relations

In a version of the report released to Radio-Canada, all of the findings were removed leaving only some of the recommendations.

A letter sent to Grandfield by the Red Cross contained more of the recommendations including ensuring proper payment to workers and raising their living conditions to meet established minimum conditions.

Problem resolved: Red Cross

As far as the Red Cross is concerned, the problem has been resolved, Tizi said.

“The first proof of the fact that we solved the problem is that this village in particular [Kanada village] is built, with high standard quality [houses],” he said.

Although the Red-Cross maintains these kinds of incidents are isolated, during a recent visit to Java’s Cirebon district Radio-Canada met dozens of villagers who said the problem went beyond one contractor in one area.

The Enquête team met with several workers who worked on Kanada village for the Canadian Red Cross several months after the problem was said to have been resolved.The problem with the workers has been addressed, says Jean-Philippe Tizi, director of international operations for the Red Cross. (CBC)

“There we were treated like exiled people, thrown away — even lower than trash,” said one man.

The Canadian Red Cross was not the only organization faced with problems with contractors.

Luc Gauvin, who worked for two years as an architect for a small non-governmental organization and for the Swiss Red Cross, said he cancelled one-third of all contracts he signed with local contractors.

“We came with excellent intentions to build houses for the victims of the tsunami,” Gauvin said. “But, the contractors, they were only there to make money.”

The Red Cross must take responsibility for an unacceptable situation, Grandfield said.

“Find the workers and apologize for this happening and then … compensate them for it,” he said.

Red Cross reacts

The allegations made by Grandfield and Radio-Canada are “simply not right,” said Pam Aung Thin, director of public affairs and government relations for the Canadian Red Cross.

The Red Cross had measures in place to make sure that workers were not mistreated and took the issue seriously when it received complaints from Grandfield, Aung Thin said in an interview on CBC’s Power & Politics with Evan Solomon Wednesday.

An isolated situation involving about 40 workers was identified and the situation was addressed, she said.

“But to keep it in context, there were 22 villages and about 4,000 workers overall that were hired, so [it was] a small percentage, but still too many,” Thin said.

The organization then brought in third parties to perform unscheduled visits to sites to make sure that labour standards were being adhered to, she said.

“Canadians should be very proud of the work that was completed,” Thin said. “We housed thousands of families.”