New Jersey Devils Lose To Oilers, Falling In Third Period
The New Jersey Devils were defeated 6-3 on Thursday night by the Edmonton Oilers, who ended a three-game losing run with goals from Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Adam Erne in the first 69 seconds of the third period.
Ryan McLeod scored two goals for Edmonton while against his older brother. Aside from Calvin Pickard‘s 23 saves, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored.
The New Jersey Devils had won eight of ten games before to losing three in a row. Their scorers were Dawson Mercer, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Timo Meier. Two assists went to Michael McLeod.
In the third, McDavid tied the score at three with his 12th goal at 1:40 on the clock. With his 14th goal at 2:22, Draisaitl gave Edmonton the lead. Erne then scored the Oilers’ first goal at 2:49 to make it 5-3.
The Oilers began a six-game journey with a 3-1 loss to the New York Islanders on Tuesday, despite two assists apiece from Sam Gagner and Mattias Ekholm.
At the beginning of the third quarter, McLeod scored his fourth goal of the year, bringing the total to 24 seconds.
After falling behind 2-0 early on, the Devils came back to tie the game at 16:26 thanks to a goal by Meier, his sixth of the game.
Meier had not scored in nine games since returning from his lower-body injury that kept him out of the game for seven games, starting on November 14 against Winnipeg.
It took less than six minutes for Edmonton to take a 2-0 lead. It was the Oilers’ eighth goal in the first two minutes of the season thanks to an early goal by McLeod. It was 2-0 at 5:24 when Nugent-Hopkins scored his seventh. Support came from Ekholm and McDavid.
Vitek Vanecek was then substituted for goalie Akira Schmid by Devils coach Lindy Ruff. After taking six shots, Schmid gave up two goals. The third period saw Vanecek break down, but in the second he stopped all eighteen shots he faced.
After falling short of Anaheim 5-1 on Sunday, the Devils were coming off a 4-3 overtime defeat to Philadelphia on Tuesday.
Before this encounter, the Oilers prevailed 4-1 in Edmonton on December 10 against New Jersey.
