The New Jersey Devils could not get much momentum going and had very little offense in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Ottawa Senators in a Presidents' Day matinee at the Prudential Center. Stephen Gionta scored the lone goal for the Devils early in the first period, who went scoreless in the shootout.
Despite the loss, the Devils still managed to gain a point and are tied with Pittsburgh for first in the Eastern Conference with 22 points. The Devils record stands at 9-3-4.
New Jersey took a 1-0 lead into the third period, but Ottawa kept coming and eventually got the equalizer on a goal by veteran Daniel Alfredsson. Jakob Silfverberg had the lone tally in the shootout for Ottawa. Ilya Kovalchuk, Patrik Elias, and Bobby Butler were all stopped by Ottawa goaltender Ben Bishop in the shootout.
"We had a handful of quality scoring chances, but he (Bishop) made a few big saves," Devils head coach Peter DeBoer said. "We had the opportunities to get that second goal, but we let them hang around and you see what happens when you do that. They showed some resiliency and finally got one in the third."
Brodeur made 29 saves for the Devils.
Devils defenseman Mark Fayne, who had two giveaways that led to goals in New Jersey's 5-3 win over Philadelphia, was a healthy scratch for a second straight game. Stefan Matteau was a healthy scratch for a third straight contest. Dainius Zubrus remains on injured reserve recovering from wrist surgery. The Devils recalled center Andrei Loktionov from Albany (AHL) and sent struggling center Jacob Josefson back to Albany. Josefson had only one assist in 15 games this season.
The Devils lost forward Ryan Carter to an upper-body injury when he was sandwiched into the boards by Ottawa's Chris Neil and Dave Dziurzynski in the second period. Carter did not return. The Devils will now travel to Washington for two games against the Capitals later this week, the first being on Thursday night at 7 p.m..
Comments