Avalanche & Anderson Keep Devils Winless at Home
Colorado 3 Devils 2
Playing with a full lineup for the first time in three games the New Jersey Devils fired a season-high 43 shots on goal and still lost 3-2 to the Colorado Avalanche on Friday night at the Prudential Center. Avalanche goalie Craig Anderson was the star of the night, turning aside 41 shots as the Devils home record fell to 0-2-1. "It's a little tough when we've been starting games the way we have, especially the last two games — out-shooting our opponents 10-0 or 15-3 — and we don't get anything, it's hard to get momentum," said Anderson's opposition Martin Brodeur. "The frustration builds up as the game goes on if you don't put the puck in the net early. It's definitely a little tough for the guys, but I think we worked through it and got a lot of chances. Not everybody is going to play like Jacques Plante against us every night."
The loss spoiled a night of first for some of New Jersey's young talent — rookie blueliner Matt Taormina scored his first NHL goal and had his first multi-point effort, while fellow rookie and defenseman Matt Corrente earned his first NHL point, an assist.
The Devils started the game strong, badly out-shooting the Avs (10-0 at one point) and still couldn't solve Anderson before his team finally woke up and scored the game's first goal. New Jersey killed off 3:56 of Colin White's four-minute double-minor penalty but Cody McLeod scored his first goal of the season when he beat Brodeur with a snap shot that the goalie said tricked him when it bounced off the ice and by him.
22 seconds after McLeod scored, he was kicked out of the game for boarding Taormina in the corner, giving the Devils a five-minute major power play. "We should have settled it down a little bit more and a little better support," said Devils winger Patrik Elias. "We have to learn how to relax a little bit with that power play; I thought in the second period when we scored on the PP, we kind of settled down, made some real good passes and had them running around." They continued to pepper Anderson with shots from all angles, and almost scored twice, but they ended the period trailing 1-0 despite holding a 17-3 edge in shots on goal. "We all had our opportunities on that power play, their goalie played well," said Taormina afterwards, "that happens."
TJ Galiardi extended the lead to 2-0 when he pounced on a loose rebound 11:48 into the second period, but it felt like 12-0 the way Anderson was playing. Three minutes later at 14:48 Taormina got New Jersey on the board with a booming slap shot that found its way through a maze of players and past Anderson. "We tell each other to shoot it on net and I did that; it's nice to finally get one, especially on the power play," said the 23-year-old rookie. "We played a good game, (but) we have some things that we have to fix."
The Devils entered the third period down by one, but quickly found themselves down by two again. "I think that we had maybe ten minutes in the second and the first ten minutes in the third we were kind of flat," said an unfazed Elias. "Not every game is going to go perfect, but we have to push each other. One line has to get good chances and we have to follow that up; I think we can push each other a little more." Chris Stewart (who now has four points in three career games vs. NJ) blasted a slap shot past Brodeur's glove hand at 4:31 for his second goal of the season.
Taormina then assisted on an Ilya Kovalchuk goal (for the second game in a row) to bring New Jersey back within one goal. The rookie fired a long pass to Kovalchuk who raced into the zone and snapped a wrist shot through Anderson, leaving the Devils with 11:15 left in the game to try to find the equalizer — which they never found. "I think we're playing well. It's just a matter of getting breaks offensively on our side," said Brodeur. "I think these breaks, eventually we're going to get, and we'll solve some of the flaws that we have in our zone."
The loss means that for the second consecutive year New Jersey (1-2-2) has dropped its first three home games; they will try again Saturday night when they host Boston (1-1-0). Colorado (3-1-0) continues their road trip and will play at the New York Islanders (1-1-2) the same night.
Game Notes: This is the second year in a row the New Jersey has lost their only meeting with Colorado. Taormina led all skaters in ice-time with 24:42 and Kyle Quincey led the Avalanche with 22:52. Kovalchuk led all players with seven shots on goal, while Daniel Winnik and Paul Stastny led the Avs with three apiece. Despite trailing in face-offs 2-9 after the first period the Devils finished the game 33-22. Rookie center Jacob Josefson (20th overall, 2009) made his NHL debut and saw 15:13 of ice-time, had one shot on goal and was 5-5 on face-offs. Stastny now has five points (1g-4a) in four career games against New Jersey.
Dan's Three Stars of the Game:
#1 – Craig Anderson (Col) – 41 saves, win (2-1-0)
#2 – TJ Galiardi (Col) – goal (1), assist (1)
#3 – Matt Taormina (NJ) – pp goal (1), assist (2)
Categories: Diablo's Doctrine . Tags: Chris Stewart, Cody McLeod, Colin White, Colorado Avalanche, Craig Anderson, Daniel Winnik, Ilya Kovalchuk, Jacob Josefson, Kyle Quincey, Martin Brodeur, Matt Taormina, Matthew Corrente, New Jersey Devils, NHL, Patrik Elias, Paul Stastny, Prudential Center, TJ Galiardi . Author: Dan Rice . Comments: 1 Comment
If You're Not First, You're Last; but…
Normally that's how I see things: 'If You Ain't First, You're Last' — Ricky Bobby; but after seeing how Team USA played at the Winter Olympics, a silver medal isn't too bad for a group that no one was too familiar with and no one gave a chance to medal in the tournament filled with powerhouses.
So I felt I should thank the 23 players that made me not only proud to be an American, but proud to be a fan of American hockey. Thank you guys for giving us a scintillating two weeks of hockey and hope you can bring home the gold in 2014.
Team USA 2010:
Ryan Miller, Tim Thomas & Jonathan Quick
Defenseman:
Tim Gleason, Jack Johnson, Erik Johnson, Brooks Orpik, Brian Rafalski, Ryan Suter & Ryan Whitney
Forwards:
David Backes, Dustin Brown, Ryan Callahan, Chris Drury, Patrik Kane, Ryan Kesler, Phil Kessel, Jamie Langenbrunner, Ryan Malone, Zach Parise, Joe Pavelski, Bobby Ryan & Paul Stastny
Categories: Diablo's Doctrine . Tags: Bobby Ryan, Brian Rafalski, Brooks Orpik, Chris Drury, David Backes, Dustin Brown, Erik Johnson, Jack Johnson, Jamie Langenbrunner, Joe Pavelski, Jonathan Quick, Patrick Kane, Paul Stastny, Phil Kessel, Ryan Callahan, Ryan Kesler, Ryan Malone, Ryan Miller, Ryan Suter, Ryan Whitney, silver medal, Team USA, Tim Gleason, Tim Thomas, Winter Olympics, Zach Parise . Author: Dan Rice . Comments: Leave a comment
@heybrittneex At least you have bread though! 2 hours ago
That'd be fine too. Either, or, or both. twitter.com/reni_minestron… 2 hours ago
Methinks most #NJDevils fans would welcome a different third jersey than the same ol same ol twitter.com/milehighhockey… 2 hours ago