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Avalanche Blank Devils in Front of Pickard

The Devils next stop on their road trip was the Mile High City of Denver for a tilt against the Colorado Avalanche. Colorado is a team that starts quickly and the Devils would need to keep some guys in check if they had any hope of winning the game.

In the end, not only did the Avs score early, but they were also boosted by a young goaltender named Calvin Pickard. On the strength of both of those factors, the Avalanche handed the Devils the second loss on their western road swing. This loss would dash the Devils’ hopes of getting to within a point of the Rangers, who lost to the Islanders tonight as well. They are still on the outside looking in as far as the playoffs are concerned.

The Devils would be down a two extra forwards, as Bobby Farnham was suspended for four games for his interference incident in the Blues game on Tuesday and Jordin Tootoo was injured in a fight with Ryan Reaves. He is day-to-day with what the team is calling an upper body injury. For Tootoo, he was also fined $2,000 for diving/embellishment, which occurred on January 4 against the Red Wings.

With them out, the Devils dressed eleven forwards and seven defensemen. Tuomo Ruutu was back in the lineup from the injured reserve and Joseph Blandisi, originally a draft pick of the Colorado Avalanche, was in the lineup as well. Paul Thompson was sent back down to Albany.

Cory Schneider got the start between the pipes for the Devils. He saw 25 shots and got 23 of them. Pickard got the start for the Avs, seeing 27 shots and grabbing all of them. It was his first NHL shutout on the way to being named the game’s first star.

The Devils did not muster much offense, although Jon Merrill had a few good chances. Damon Severson led the team with four shots on the night.

The Avalanche are a great first period team, notoriously quick starters and sure enough, the first goal of the game (what would go on to be the game winner, no less) was scored just 51 seconds into the game by Matt Duchene, who victimized the Devils again, as he did at Prudential Center back in December. Nick Holden and Gabriel Landeskog got the assists on that goal. New Jersey was caught in a line change when the Avalanche broke in on a 2-on-1 and finished the job. Patrick Roy’s team was up 1-0 and would not look back.

The Devils looked to be in business when the Avs’ Chris Bigras was called for hooking with a minute left in the first period. They would have half of their power play on fresh ice, but Colorado killed it off. In fact, the Devils’ power play would go 0-for-3 on the night.

In the second, Holden would go off for holding Kyle Palmieri at 5:56. The Devils would have another power play, but they found themselves down 2-0 when it was over instead. Tyson Barrie scored from Nathan MacKinnon and Alex Tanguay at 7:55, technically shorthanded, since there was one second left on the Devils’ power play. It was 2-0 Colorado after two.

Late in the third period, New Jersey would pull Schneider to try to even things up, but ended up yielding an empty net goal to Carl Soderberg instead. The goal came unassisted at 19:32 and gave Colorado the 3-0 lead that was the final.

The Devils will now look ahead to Glendale, Arizona and the surging Coyotes. The game has been moved up to a 2 PM start Eastern Time due to the Arizona Cardinals-Green Bay Packers NFL playoff game at University of Phoenix Stadium right across the parking lot.

They will try to even up the road trip at .500, but that will be a difficult task. Mike Cammalleri, it was announced, will not be joining the team on this trip, which means the earliest they can get him back is Tuesday at home against the Calgary Flames. In the meantime, the Devils will look to score some goals. They need to get them from some unlikely sources at this point if they want to remain in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

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Devils Win Wild One in Minnesota

The Devils traveled to St. Paul to begin their longest road trip of the season against the Minnesota Wild, trying to end a three game losing streak. It was a cold day in Minnesota (as was evident to anyone who watched the Minnesota Vikings-Seattle Seahawks NFL playoff game from earlier today), but the Devils had been in St. Paul since yesterday to prepare for their tough Central Division opponent.

The Devils got some good news with David Schlemko and Tyler Kennedy returning to the lineup. In addition, Joseph Blandisi was called up from AHL Albany to fill in a spot on the second line wing. He played on a unit with Adam Henrique and Lee Stempniak.

Eric Gelinas and Stefan Matteau were healthy scratches for New Jersey, while John Moore is still out with the injury suffered in Montreal a few games back.

Cory Schneider got the nod for the Devils again, making 17 saves on just 18 Minnesota shots faced. In goal for the Wild was backup Darcy Kuemper, making his first start since December 21. He had suffered a concussion and was not available since then. He made 15 saves while the Devils peppered him with a measly 17 shots.

On the topic of shots, the Devils would hold the Wild to no shots for 19 minutes spanning the first and second periods. It was definitely a defensive struggle, but there were flurries of offensive chances. NBCSN analyst (the Devils were playing their one and only nationally televised game tonight) Pierre McGuire attributed it to puck possession and the Devils ability to not turn over the puck. He praised the Devils new style under John Hynes and said that they are not passively waiting in the neutral zone for a turnover, but attacking.

There was no scoring throughout the first two periods, but the second period saw a nice scrap between Jordin Tootoo and ex-Devil Ryan Carter. Tootoo won the fight decisively. It was set up earlier with some physical play by Tootoo. Tootoo will often try to use his fights to wake the Devils up and get them going. It would take another period, but the Devils would respond.

The first goal of the game came unassisted when Blandisi took a breakout pass from Stempniak. Blandisi lost the puck briefly and the Minnesota clearing attempt was intercepted by Henrique, who wristed one by Kuemper. The Devils had a 1-0 lead just 1:21 into the third.

Then the power went out. Literally.

NBCSN had technical difficulties that kept fans from seeing the next two goals. They cut to the studio and then live look-ins of Detroit-Anaheim and Edmonton-Florida. When the feed came back in, it was 2-1 Devils as Zach Parise (from Mikko Koivu and Ryan Suter) had scored for the Wild and defenseman Jon Merrill had scored what would become the game winner for the Devils (from Sergey Kalinin and Kyle Palmieri).

For Parise, it was the first goal he had ever scored against his former team in four career games against New Jersey. He has now scored against every team in the National Hockey League.

The Wild would pull Kuemper twice, but would never be able to sustain an attack in the Devils’ zone with the extra man. The Devils held on for a 2-1 win, snapping their losing streak and coming away with two points. This got them back into the second wildcard playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 47 points, moving ahead of Tampa Bay and tying them with Boston in points (although the Bruins have three games in hand).

The Devils have clawed their way back into a playoff spot. If they can stay where they are or improve while they weather the injury storm, they will be in good shape.

But things do not get any easier for New Jersey. Up next, they head to St. Louis on Tuesday to take on the Blues, another strong Central Division team. The Devils lost to the Blues back in November at Prudential Center. They then face Colorado on Thursday and Arizona on Saturday. These are tough opponents and this is a rough stretch of the schedule. Once the team gets healthy, they will hope that they have picked up some wins in this, the “Dog Days” of the NHL season.