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Flyers Ambush Devils in 6-3 Win

The Devils renewed their rivalry with the Philadelphia Flyers just three days after defeating them at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday. That was a tight, defensive game that ended in overtime with a New Jersey win. The game played tonight at Prudential Center would be nothing of the sort.

It was Retro Night at The Rock as the Devils would throw it back to the 1980s and wear their green and red jerseys. The problem was, it seemed at times like the 1982 Devils showed up and not the 2016 Devils.

Getting in the spirit of the retro theme, goalies Cory Schneider and Keith Kinkaid had special red and green masks with Devils legends painted into them. The Devils looked sharp in their throwbacks, unfortunately the Flyers did not join in on the fun by wearing their Cooperalls from 1982-83. (For those who may not remember or have simply blocked them out of their minds, Cooperalls were long hockey pants, kind of like roller hockey pants, that the Flyers and the Hartford Whalers wore for one season in 1982-83. A failed NHL uniform experiment to say the least.)

One scoring change from the Los Angeles game on Sunday, as Joseph Blandisi was credited with the lone goal of the game. For Blandisi, it is his fifth of the season and not unexpected either, as replays clearly showed that he had tipped the puck in.

The goaltending matchup was the same as Saturday, as Cory Schneider faced off with Michal Neuvirth. Schneider made 20 saves on 25 shots faced. Neuvirth saw 24 Devil shots and made 21 saves. Cory did not play bad, it was just one of those “clunkers” (as MSG+’s Deb Placey called it) of a game for the Devils overall.

The first period was a wild one to say the least. Right off the bat, Stephen Gionta gets bumped into the boards and left holding his right arm. He drew a penalty, as Nick Schultz went off for interference. He would miss the rest of the game with what the team is calling an upper body injury. The Devils would be down a forward from here on out.

Philly got the first good chance of the game when they hit the post on a power play they drew a few minutes later when Tyler Kennedy was called for delay of game for shooting the puck over the glass.

Things got really crazy when the Flyers’ Radko Gudas drew a match penalty – he was kicked out of the game and the Devils had five minutes on the power play – for a predatory and violent hit to the head of Bobby Farnham.

The Devils would seem to convert right away when Adam Henrique scored. Philly immediately challenged on the grounds of goalie interference. The call on the ice was overturned, as the replay showed Lee Stempniak bump Neuvirth inside the blue paint. The goal was waved off, Philly kept their timeout and the wind was taken out of the Devils’ sails. Henrique would immediately follow up by missing a wide open net.

To compound all of that, Stempniak hit both posts on a shot that came right out of the goal without ever crossing the goal line. So they missed an opportunity there too.

They finally broke through right after that play when at 12:01; Reid Boucher took the puck along the half wall and gave it to John Moore at the point. He fired and the rebound came right out to Kennedy at the bottom of the far faceoff circle. He beat Neuvirth for his first goal since last March when he was a member of the Islanders.

The Goudas penalty had given the Devils the momentum. He is a player who plays on the edge and the officials are always scrutinizing what he is doing on the ice.

Unfortunately for the Devils, the momentum picked up here would not last.

At 17:23, Shayne Gostisbehere continued his historic rookie point scoring streak when he beat Cory for his 11th goal of the season from Brayden Schenn and Claude Giroux. It was now tied up at one apiece. This goal appeared to come off a play where Gostisbehere was offside, but replays showed that he just kept the puck in the Devils’ zone and was very much onside. A precision play that put led to a game tying goal.

The second period was just as wild, getting started with coincidental roughing minors to Adam Larsson and Schenn. The Flyers took a lot of penalties in this game, but it was a Devils penalty that would tip the momentum firmly towards the Flyers side.

Kyle Palmieri went off for holding Giroux and Schenn would capitalize on this power play, scoring from Wayne Simmonds and Giroux. Schenn, Simmonds and Giroux would all have multi-point games for Philadelphia.

The Devils were now down 2-1 and desperately trying to get back into it. That would finally come at 9:24 of the third when the puck was moved back to Seth Helgeson at the near point. He fired a shot that was tipped by a Flyer to Jordin Tootoo at the half wall. Tootoo turned, fired and beat Neuvirth to tie the game. The Devils seemed to be back into it. Then Travis Zajac took an interference call and it all came crashing down.

Zajac is a key part of the Devils’ penalty kill (due largely to his large amount of faceoff wins) and he was now in the penalty box. Sure enough, noted Devil-killer Wayne Simmonds connected from Schenn and Giroux to give the Flyers back the lead. Simmonds is to Devils fans what Patrik Elias was to Flyers fans during the peak of his career. Just a guy who always seems to come to play against your team and score key goals at key times for his team.

From there, the floodgates opened for Philly. Nick Cousins scored from RJ Umberger and Ryan White to make it 4-2. Jakub Voracek scored from Umberger to make it 5-2.

Kyle Palmieri’s 21st of the season from David Schlemko seemed to give the Devils a sliver of hope, but a White empty net goal about 20 seconds later (from Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Chris VandeVelde) put the icing on the Flyers win.

Bobby Farnham took a 10 minute misconduct and roughing call against Schultz to end the game at 18:55, but other than that, the Devils seemed flat most of the night. The Devils had lost a game for the first time this year after they had scored the first goal.

What can be said? These games happen from time to time. The Devils just need to shake it off and prepare for the Islanders on Friday at home. New Jersey got some help in the standings because Tampa Bay lost to the Sharks in regulation and the Devils will now have a chance to directly leapfrog the Isles when they face each other at the end of this week. The Devils have a rough road ahead: the Islanders followed by the Capitals and then the Rangers make up their next three, but they have shown that they can show up against the big guys and hopefully they can grab a few points from teams ahead of them in the Metro Division standings.

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Devils down Flyers in Overtime to Stay in Playoff Race

Coming off of an emotional Martin Brodeur Night at The Rock on Tuesday, the New Jersey Devils would have three off days and then travel down to Philadelphia to play a Flyers team that is right on their tails in the hunt for a playoff spot in the Metropolitan Division.

The Devils would get exactly what they needed in the form of their seventh overtime win of the season.

Some roster issues for the Devils included Eric Gelinas, Tuomo Ruutu and Stefan Matteau sitting for New Jersey again. Matteau took a puck to the face at practice yesterday and suffered some fractures to bones in that area. He will need a full face shield should he play again during his time with this injury. It has to be a frustrating time for Matteau, who has not played much since January and this injury just compounds that frustration for him.

Of note for the Flyers’ scratches was Matt Read in addition to Scott Laughton and Evgeny Medvedev. Read handed the Devils their only overtime loss back in December at Prudential Center, but would not be available for Philly today.

The starting goaltenders were Cory Schneider for the Devils and Michal Neuvirth for Philadelphia. Cory was brilliant again, in being named the third star of the game; he made 31 saves on 32 Flyers shots. The New Jersey netminder kept the Devils in the game at times and helped them weather the storm of some sustained Flyer pressure at various points.

Neuvirth made 22 saves on 24 Devils shots. He also played pretty well and made the game very interesting, coming up big for Philly when he needed to.

The Devils got the scoring kicked off when Nick Schultz of the Flyers took an interference call against Bobby Farnham at 6:01 of the first period. The Devils went on the power play, as special teams would become somewhat of a theme on the night.

At 6:43, Jacob Josefson took a shot from the near faceoff dot in the Flyers’ zone. Philly failed to clear the puck, as Travis Zajac kept it in in the slot. His shot was gathered by Joseph Blandisi, who scored a goal by shooting the puck between his legs, beating Neuvirth on the short side. It was a very nice goal and highlighted the “special skill set” as John MacLean would call it on the MSG+ postgame show. It was 1-0 Devils.

And that is the way it would remain. The Flyers got off only two shots in the first period, but reversed course in the second. The entire second period was essentially sustained Flyer pressure. The Flyers had eight of the nine scoring chances at one point and quickly evened the shot total, then surpassed it. But New Jersey was able to weather that rough patch due to Cory Schneider, mostly.

In the third, just 36 seconds in, the Flyers immediately went on the power play for four minutes when Sergey Kalinin was called for a high sticking double minor against Flyers captain Claude Giroux. Giroux left the ice briefly, and Philly seemed to be set. But then, about 30 seconds into the power play, as Philly was regrouping in the neutral zone and bringing the puck back in, Wayne Simmonds was called for interference against Stephen Gionta. It was a questionable call at best, but the Devils would take it. The Flyers are the most penalized team in the NHL and perhaps that played a part in some of the calls that went the Devils’ way this afternoon.

So, with the teams now playing 4-on-4, there would be some open ice. That would pass and the Flyers would go on an abbreviated power play.

They would capitalize in a record setting way.

At 3:49 of the third, Shayne Gostisbehere tied it off an assist from Giroux. For Gostisbehere, it was another point in his first 11 games. The first time a rookie has done that since Barry Beck of the Colorado Rockies in 1977-78.

So the game was tied and would get a little bit chippy as well. After Bobby Farnham clipped Neuvirth after a whistle, Radko Gudas took exception and they would both go off with coincidental roughing minors at 18:00. Penalties would continue to play a factor in the game.

After regulation ended tied, we were headed off to overtime. The Devils have excelled this season in the extra session, going 6-1 in OT coming into this afternoon. The lone loss? To the Flyers back in December when Matt Read scored the winner at The Rock.

The overtime period was your typical back-and-forth affair, as has become common in the new three-on-three format. Both goalies kept their teams in it, making big saves when they needed to. But when Andy Greene had a scoring chance for the Devils 2:31 into the OT period, the Flyers’ Jakub Voracek hauled him down with a hooking call and the Devils would go on the power play in overtime.

Coach John Hynes quickly called his timeout, drawing up a play for the Devils with the extra man. Kyle Palmieri would start from the point, sending it down low to Adam Henrique, who gave it back to John Moore back at the point. Moore sent it back to Henrique at the bottom of the far faceoff circle, who sniped one past Neuvirth and gave the Devils the victory.

The Devils had come away with two precious points that will serve them well as the playoff race gets tighter and tighter.

Next up, the Devils return home to Prudential Center to face the Los Angeles Kings in a 12:30 PM Valentine’s Day matinee. The Kings lead the Pacific Division and will give the Devils a huge test. Steve Cangialosi mentioned in the postgame show that Jonathan Quick is not available for LA, so we will see who gets the start for the Kings. Coming off of their thrilling victory over the Rangers the other night, LA should be up for this one. Hopefully the Devils can keep pace.