Sunday afternoon, the New Jersey Devils lost to the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 to fall to 29-19-6 on the season. Their comeback attempt in the third period fell just short once again.
Recap
Period One
The Devils started this game out extremely slow, falling behind in the first period. First a shot from the wall went off the glove of Jake Allen and right to an open Tage Thompson in the slot. Thompson buried the puck five hole to put Buffalo up 1-0. Later in the period, the puck took a bounce over the stick of Jesper Bratt and right to Thompson again who made a slick feed to JJ Peterka.
Buffalo was up 2-0 when the Devils went on the power play, a sloppy pinch by Dougie Hamilton led to a breakaway the other way for Ryan McLeod who made a slick move to give Buffalo the 3-0 lead. That would be the score after one period of play.
Period Two
New Jersey started the second period on the front foot, and would eventually score their first goal of the game. After the puck was rolling on end near the goal line, video review would confirm it fully crossed the line. Paul Cotter got his first goal in 10 games to make it 3-1. After a long Buffalo power play where the Devils couldn’t get out of their own defensive zone, Thompson made another nice play to get the puck over to Jason Zucker. The Sabres once again led by three after the second period.
Period Three
The third period started off with a bang as Paul Cotter roofed the puck short side just 18 seconds in. That gave the Devils life until Stefan Noesen took a five minute major and match penalty for contact to the head on Thompson. On that kill, however, it would be the Devils who scored as Bratt fed Jack Hughes who was in all alone and went five hole to make it 4-3.
After the kill the Devils would have a chance of their own on the power play, but that actually seemed to kill any momentum they had. After another crack at it was ended by a Timo Meier interference penalty the game seemed all but over. They would have some zone time with about a minute to play, but it wasn’t enough. The Devils fell to the Sabres 4-3 in Buffalo.
Game Notes
Can’t be Clutch
In 2022-23, the Devils were amazing at scoring in the clutch with the net empty. They did it countless times en route to a magical season. Since then? Different story.
Over the past nearly two seasons, the Devils have scored a tying goal with the net empty just three times. Once in 2023-24 when Luke Hughes went end-to-end against Columbus and twice this season. Both times were against the New York Islanders when Jesper Bratt and Stefen Noesen came up clutch just a few weeks apart.
Thompson Owning New Jersey
In 2021-22, Tage Thompson had his big breakout season, scoring 38 goals and 68 total points. Since that season, Thompson has played 11 games against the Devils where he has scored 10 goals and 14 total points. Some players just seem to have certain team’s numbers and that is certainly the case for Thompson and the Devils.
Even today before exiting with an injury, Thompson was the best player on the ice with a goal and an assist. His most notable outing against New Jersey was his four goal performance last March, the second most he’s scored in a single game in his career.
Next Up
The Devils next test is a trip to Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins. The game is set for a 7:00 pm ET puck drop on Wednesday.