New Jersey 2, Los Angeles 1
When: 10:30 PM ET, Saturday, March 12, 2016
Where: Staples Center, Los Angeles, California
Referees:
Justin St. Pierre, Brad Watson
Linesmen:
Darren Gibbs, Ryan Gibbons
Attendance:
18412
By The Sports Xchange
You do not want to take the 2015-16 New Jersey Devils to overtime.
Just ask the Los Angeles Kings.
"That was a 60-minute battle," New Jersey coach John Hynes said after John Moore scored with 15.2 seconds left in overtime to lead the Devils to a 2-1 win over the Kings at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Saturday night.
The Devils improved to 9-1 this season in games decided in the five-minute, three-on-three overtime.
"It took 60 minutes, plus," Hynes said. "Good game, though."
Tyler Kennedy scored and Keith Kinkaid made 22 saves for New Jersey, which has won the first two games of its three-game California trip. The Devils improved to 33-29-7.
New Jersey swept the season series from Los Angeles.
Jonathan Quick stopped 22 of 24 shots for LA and Anze Kopitar scored the Kings' goal.
"I don't think the energy level was where it needed to be," Kopitar said. "We just didn't play the way way we need to win the game especially at this time of the year."
The Devils entered the game on the periphery of the Eastern Conference wild-card race. At the start of game action, New Jersey trailed Pittsburgh, which holds the second wild card by seven points.
Metropolitan Divisional rivals Philadelphia and Carolina are ahead of the Devils in the wild-card race. With the win, the Devils did pass Ottawa for 11th place in the conference.
New Jersey has spoken confidently all season about being a playoff team, and against the Pacific Division-leading Kings, they started quickly as Kennedy opened the scoring 1:12 in with his third goal of the season.
Kennedy drove to the net and jammed Devante Smith-Pelley's backhand shot through Quick for the opening goal. New Jersey had an opportunity later in the period to grow its lead, but Quick stoned Henrique on a short-handed breakaway.
The period ended with New Jersey holding onto its slim lead, even though Los Angeles had three power plays in the period.
The Devils outshot the Kings 8-4 in the period, although three of Los Angeles' four shots came on three power plays.
"I don't think we were aggressive enough," Kopitar said of a Kings power play that was 0 of 5 in 10 minutes and generated seven shots. "We didn't get enough shots on it and I don't know what the totals were, but it seemed like we didn’t get enough pucks to the net."
New Jersey's trend for taking penalties continued in the second period as Bobby Farnham was assessed a four-minute minor for high-sticking Nick Shore.
But the Kings couldn't break through as the Devils blocked four shots on the extended power play. For the game, New Jersey finished with 29 shot blocks.
"We spent too much time on the penalty kill," Hynes said. "Shot blocking was huge, particularly early in the game when we were short-handed quite a bit."
Still, shot blocking largely means a team isn't playing with the puck, and New Jersey was not.
And it came back to bite them when Los Angeles drew even at 1 with 5:24 left in the second period on Kopitar's backhander to conclude a sequence in which the Kings controlled the puck in the attacking zone.
"It was unfortunate that we couldn't get our guys off the ice," Hynes said of the protracted shift.
According to MSG Network in New York, Seth Helgeson was on the ice for 3:34 during the sequence, which ended with his mouth being bloodied by Kopitar's stick blade.
NOTES: New Jersey entered the game having won three of five games against the Kings after the 2012 Stanley Cup Final, which Los Angeles won in six games. The last time the teams met, the Devils topped the Kings 1-0 on Feb. 14 at Prudential Center. G Keith Kinkaid made 28 saves in that game to post his first NHL shutout. ... Los Angeles scratched D Jamie McBain and C Andy Andreoff. ... New Jersey G Cory Schneider missed his third straight game with a Grade 1 sprained MCL. ... Devils C Jacob Josefson missed his third straight game with an upper-body injury. ... New Jersey D Damon Severson sat out his second straight game due to what the team termed "maintenance." ... D Jon Merrill and RW Jordin Tootoo were scratched.
Top Game Performances
| New Jersey |
|
Los Angeles |
|
Tyler Kennedy 1 |
Points |
Anze Kopitar 1 |
|
Tyler Kennedy 1 |
Goals |
Anze Kopitar 1 |
|
Joseph Blandisi 1 |
Assists |
Milan Lucic 1 |
|
N/A |
Power Play Goals |
N/A |
|
N/A |
Short Handed Goals |
N/A |
|
Keith Kinkaid .957 |
Save Percentage |
Jonathan Quick .917 |
|
Keith Kinkaid 22 |
Saves |
Jonathan Quick 22 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Shots |
Goals |
Power Play |
Penalty Kill |
Penalty Mins |
Face Offs Won |
| New Jersey
|
24 |
2 |
0-1 |
5-5 |
10 |
23 |
| Los Angeles
|
23 |
1 |
0-5 |
1-1 |
2 |
29 |
Upcoming Games
-
Los Angeles will play their next game on the road against Chicago. The Kings have a W/L % of .537 after a win and .692 after a loss.
-
New Jersey will play their next game on the road against Anaheim. The Devils have a W/L % of .424 after a win and .528 after a loss.
For more information, contact us