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Devils Felled in OT by Leafs

The Devils kept pace with the high-powered offense of the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight, but a costly mistake in the overtime period was fatal and the Devils lost 5-4 at Prudential Center tonight.

First some World Junior Championship news as no games were played involving Devils prospects, but Slovakia did beat Kazakhstan 3-1 and Team USA got back on track, doubling up Germany 6-3.

Now on to the Devils game tonight. It was the first game for New Jersey out of the Christmas break and they were coming off of a 7-1 clobbering of the Chicago Blackhawks. It was the first time that the Devils had scored seven straight in a game since two games in 2000, one at the Penguins that they won 9-0 and one at the Atlanta Thrashers that they also won 9-0. The Pittsburgh game was actually during the 2000-01 season (October 28) while the Atlanta game was during the 1999-2000 season (March 4). All of this information comes via Hockey-Reference.com. Toronto had also had a big win in their last game, beating the Hurricanes 8-6 last Monday as well.

Lineup news for the Devils featured Pavel Zacha, who ended a 24-game goalless drought on Monday. He left the morning skate early and also left the pregame warmups early. Both led to him being a game time decision. He was scratched in favor of Kevin Rooney. Connor Carrick was the other scratch for the Devils.

One other guy who did play tonight was Jesper Boqvist. He was injured in the Chicago game, but it turned out to only be a chipped tooth, albeit one that caused bleeding.

The goalie matchup featured Michael Hutchinson for Toronto and Mackenzie Blackwood for the Devils. Hutchinson made 24 saves on 28 Devils shots for an .857 save percentage. Blackwood was 32-for-37 for an .865 save percentage on the night.

The first two periods were a frenzy of goal scoring and Nico Hischier got the Devils up early when he scored just 4:33 into the contest. Kyle Palmieri made a hit behind the net, sealing a Maple Leafs player from the puck that really set the goal up. Palmieri got it to Jesper Bratt in the corner and he centered it to Nico in the slot. He took it and sniped it by Hutchinson. This goal was all set up by Palmieri as he really made the play to free up the puck. It was 1-0 Devils.

But the Leafs being what they are, they struck quickly later on in the period got back in and took the lead before the end of the first. It began at 16:56 when Toronto was on the power play. It was set up when Miles Wood took a double minor for high sticking. The Devils had not given up a power play goal in 15 attempts, but in the last of the four-minute power play, they let one in here. Morgan Rielly shot and Blackwood could not handle the rebound. Zach Hyman was right there to poke it in and make it 1-1. Jason Spezza had the secondary assist.

Toronto took the lead 19 seconds later at 17:15 when they worked the puck around to John Tavares up high. He shot and it was tipped in by Blackwood by Ilya Mikheyev. William Nylander had the other assist on the goal that made it 2-1 Toronto.

The Leafs ended up outshooting the Devils 19-9 in the first period, which equaled the most shots the Devils have given up in a single period so far this season.

But then the flurry of goals in the second period put the Devils ahead. This was kicked off just 1:42 into the second period when Nikita Gusev scored on the power play. Toronto was down two men as Mitch Marner was off at 1:27 for tripping Gusev and Jake Muzzin shot the puck over the glass at 1:33 to draw a delay of game penalty.

The puck was dropped back to Sami Vatanen at the point and he shot. The rebound came to Hischier in front. Eventually, it ended up on the stick of Gusev and he scored to tie things at two.

But the Leafs would get that one right back. At the 5:16 mark, Kasperi Kapanen skated full-speed up the right wing and took a bank pass from Alexander Kerfoot.  He shot off the rush and beat Blackwood upstairs to make it 3-2 Maple Leafs. Tavares had the secondary helper.

From there it was the Devils who took over things. It began at 7:01 when Palmieri scored his team-leading 15th of the year. It came when Toronto failed to clear the puck from their zone and Palmieri grabbed the puck in the near corner. He skated to the middle of the ice and snapped a shot by Hutchinson. The Devils had had two other chances just prior to the goal. Hischier and Bratt had the assists on the goal. It was now 3-3.

At 10:11, the Devils would take the lead. The Devils stole the puck in their own zone and Palmieri and Bratt were off on a 2-on-1. Palmieri faked a shot and made a precision pass to Bratt, who put it upstairs over a prone Hutchinson. It was 4-3 Devils heading into the second intermission.

The Maple Leafs had one win in 10 games where they were trailing going into the third period, but they would tie things up at the 8:15 mark. It came off of the stick of Tavares on the power play. The Devils had taken a bench minor for too many men on the ice at 6:28 and the Leafs’ power play made them pay. They worked the puck around to Nylander at the near half wall. He faked a shot and made a no-look pass to Tavares, wide open at the side of the Devils net. It was a layup for him and it knotted the game at four. Tyson Barrie had the other assist.

A scary moment just prior to the end of the third period as Mikheyev was cut by a skate blade and immediately went to the locker room. Hopefully he is okay and does not miss any time.

Penalties would play a part in a heart-stopping finish. It began when Wood (holding) and Hyman (embellishment) went off with coincidental minors at 18:37. It was 4-on-4 after that, but then, at 19:31, Blake Coleman was sent off for slashing. That made it 4-on-3 in regulation. Once the matching minors ended, the Leafs were up 5-on-4. Then it was back to 4-on-3 once overtime began. Confusing, but in the end, the Devils killed everything off.

Overall, Toronto was 2-for-4 on the power play with six shots while the Devils were 1-for-3 with three shots. Almost amazingly, with the firewagon hockey on display at times, neither team managed a shorthanded shot on goal.

The game winner came in OT when Damon Severson, in front of his own goal, tried to sweep the puck behind the Devils net and, instead, put in behind Blackwood. Nylander, the last Leaf to touch the puck, was credited with the goal unassisted. Toronto had the 5-4 win on a regrettable, yet understandable, mistake by Severson.

Stats-wise, the Devils won 51-percent of the game’s faceoffs, outhit the Leafs by a wide margin (24-8), had more blocks then Toronto at 16 to eight and had more giveaways at ten to the Leafs’ six.

PK Subban led Devils skaters in ice time with 25:35 total (3:03 on the power play and 37 seconds on the penalty kill). Travis Zajac led the forwards with 20:51 of total ice (including 4:40 shorthanded).

Nico Hischier, Kyle Palmieri and Jesper Bratt each had a three-point night, as each had a goal and two assists. Coleman led the team in shots on goal with six, Sami Vatanen led in hits with four, Andy Greene led in blocks with four and Palmieri led in takeaways with four.

Next up for the Devils, a 5 PM ET puck drop at Ottawa on Sunday. In the meantime, keep an eye out for continuing World Juniors coverage tomorrow as we have Switzerland-Sweden and Russia-Canada on tap for you.

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Devils Win Second Straight as Palmieri’s Goal Lifts Them in OT

Following last night’s win over a tough Pittsburgh Penguins team, the Devils were right back in the lion’s den taking on a very good Montreal Canadiens team in Montreal tonight.

In one of the strangest games you will ever see, the Devils came away with the 4-3 overtime win courtesy of a feed from Taylor Hall and a Kyle Palmieri blast.

The Devils had one loss in their last six games versus Montreal. The changes to the lineup featured Jesper Boqvist moving out of the forward group in favor of John Hayden. Colton White was the other healthy scratch while Kevin Rooney remains injured and was a scratch.

It was Hockey Fights Cancer Night in Montreal and the pregame featured the fans being asked to turn on the flashlights on their phones and share in a moment of silence, which was done league-wide. It was a cool visual on TV with the flashlights illuminating the Bell Centre through the dark.

Each team had won the first half of a back-to-back and were trying to take the full four points on the weekend. The Devils went with Mackenzie Blackwood in goal for the fourth straight time, as he has all six of the Devils’ wins this year. He stopped 31 of the 34 shots he saw from the Habs for a .912 save percentage.

Montreal threw out former Devil Keith Kinkaid. He turned aside 39 of the 43 shots the Devils had for a .907 save percentage. Kinkaid was 1-1-1 in his three starts for the Habs, but the Devils really peppered him, notching 20 shots in the first period. These 20 shots were the first time the Devils had thrown that much rubber at a goalie since last January 6 at Vegas, in the third period of that game.

Brendan Gallagher got the scoring started when he scored at the 18:41 mark of the first for the Habs. It came when Jeff Petry took the puck at the near faceoff circle and shot. That was tipped by Blackwood by Gallagher to make it 1-0 Canadiens. Tomas Tatar had the secondary assist.

But it would take exactly one minute, at the 19:41 mark for the Devils to tie things. This came off the stick of Nikita Gusev when the Devils kept the play moving down low and it came out to Blake Coleman in the slot. He made a nifty little pass to Gusev at the side of the net and he dunks it in to make it 1-1. Gusev had missed a grade A chance just moments before and it was nice to see him put it home on his second chance. The assist on this goal extended Coleman’s point streak to three games while Travis Zajac, who had the secondary, now has points in his last two games.

Montreal would retake the lead just 7:43 gone in the second period. Habs defenseman Cale Fleury scored his first NHL goal when he took the puck in the slot from Phillip Danault and stickhandled his way through the Devils defense. He shot upstairs on Blackwood to give Montreal the 2-1 lead.

Then the penalties started to be called.

After calling nothing through the first half of the game, the referees suddenly got their whistles out and the remaining portion of the game was a mishmash of 4-on-4’s, 5-on-3’s and other assorted combinations of power plays.

Nick Suzuki of the Canadiens took advantage on the power play first. He put Montreal up 3-1 when he scored from the side of the net, jamming it home from Max Domi and Shea Weber to put the Habs up by two at the 18:42 mark of the second. This one was at 5-on-3 for the Habs as PK Subban was called for a slash at 17:47 and Damon Severson for a hook at 18:18.

But the Devils would come right back again. With about 1.1 seconds left, on a shorthanded 2-on-1, Nico Hischier finished off a feed from Pavel Zacha and scored to make it 3-2 before the second intermission. That was the Devils’ first shorthanded goal of the season.

The third period, as noted above, was really chaotic in terms of penalties called. There were, in total, 20 minutes of combined minor penalties between the two teams in this frame.

The Devils were the beneficiaries as Wayne Simmonds scored on the man advantage at 15:12 to tie the game at three. Domi had taken an interference penalty and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for brushing Coleman’s stick away when he dropped it on a play near the Devils’ blue line. In the ensuing power play for the Devils, during which Palmieri was assessed a cross-checking penalty against Petry to make it 4-on-4 for a time, the Devils made a tic-tac-toe passing play to Simmonds. He was camped out at the right side of the net and took a beautiful pass from Hall, burying it to make knot the game up at three.

The Devils had not won a game this year in which they had trailed by more than one goal. Things seemed to be business as usual as Montreal seemingly scored on a goal mouth scramble. The referee made no initial signal that there was a goal as he had seemed to whistle the play dead.

He then signaled a good goal, following a conference with the other officials and things seemed to be headed to a 4-3 loss to the Devils (the goal came with about 47 seconds left on the clock). John Hynes could not challenge the call for goalie interference as it was within the final minute of the game, when all challenges have to be initiated by Toronto.

And sure enough, Toronto did challenge it. The initial thought of all of those watching was that goalie interference would be the Devils’ saving grace. It looked like the player who scored fell on top of Blackwood not allowing him to make the save. The final verdict, however, was that the puck was “kicked” into the net by the Habs’ player with his knee, disallowing the goal and reverting the score to 3-3.

It was a crazy sequence and one that is tough to really describe, but we were playing on and the Devils still had life.

Once time ran out on that insane third period, we were off to overtime.

And here, penalties would once again play a part. Just 44 seconds into the extra session, Danualt was called for hooking against Hall as Hall dashed up the left wing boards. The Devils used their timeout, regrouped and, when the play resumed again, Severson took a shot that went wide and was collected by Hischier. Hischier gave to Hall along the far half wall and he found a nice seam to Palmieri, who simply blasted the puck by Kinkaid to give the Devils the W.

Overall, the Devils were 2-for-6 on the power play, including the game winner, with four shots. They also had the shorty goal and two shots shorthanded. Montreal was 1-for-5 with four shots on the PP and one shot shorthanded.

The Devils won only 46-percent of the game’s faceoffs and were outhit 31 to 22. They did have more blocks than the Habs at 20 to Montreal’s eight and had less giveaways at four to the Canadiens’ 17.

Individually, PK Subban led the skaters in time on ice with 23:47 (including 49 seconds of power play time and 1:56 of penalty killing). Hall led the forwards with 21:09 (including 4:49 of PP time). Will Butcher led in shots on goal with six, Coleman led in hits with five, Andy Greene led in blocked shots with seven and Severson led in takeaways with three.

Next up, the Devils will return home to take on the Boston Bruins on Tuesday. Can the Devils continue their resurgence and beat the Bruins in their second meeting of three this season? We will find out on Tuesday.