A day after falling to the Los Angeles Kings in overtime, the New Jersey Devils headed to San Jose to take on the San Jose Sharks. The west coast road trip hasn’t been kind to the Devils the last few years, but their record against San Jose has been even worse. New Jersey hadn’t won in the aptly named “Shark Tank” since the 2015-2016 season.
San Jose entered the game shorthanded, as they lost a handful of players to COVID protocol. Included in the ineligible list is their $11 million defenseman Erik Karlsson. In the second half of the back-to-back, Jonathan Bernier got the start for New Jersey. James Reimer was in net for San Jose.
First Period
The first period ended just as it began, with both teams having a 0-0 tie. New Jersey had a slight 10 to 9 shot advantage and each team took one penalty apiece. Damon Severson continued his unfortunate streak of being sent to the box with a hooking call midway through the first. Jesper Bratt would draw a holding call a few minutes later but neither team found the back of the net on the man advantage or any other time during the first for that matter.
Second Period
The second period finally saw some goals being scored, with each team netting one. San Jose would strike first as a beautiful feed from Nick Bonino to Rudolf Balcers got past Johnathan Bernier. San Jose’s offensively gifted defenseman Brett Burns added an assist. As the period began to wind down, Nico Hischier sent the puck on a saucer pass to Adam Graves for his first as a Devil. The period’s only penalty was Nick Bonino for high sticking against Hischier. It was only good for two minutes instead of a double minor.
Third Period
The third period began with the Devils getting the period’s first power play as Balcers took his second penalty the game. The Devils couldn’t capitalize, yet San Jose was able to once Janne Kuokkanen took a high sticking call. His penalty leading to San Jose’s go-ahead goal continued Kuokkanen’s rough start to his sophomore season. Jonathan Dahlen scored on the man advantage, as Burns got his second assist of the game and former Devil Nick Merkley added the secondary assist.
Remember that “tough start” we were talking about from Kuokkanen? Well, he somewhat redeemed himself as he scored his second goal of the season to tie the game at two goals each with less than three minutes left in the game. Immediately after the tying goal, Devils Head Coach Lindy Ruff elected to use a timeout in an interesting move. Colton White, who was just called up from the AHL, got the assist along with Jimmy Vesey.
Overtime
Why win in three periods when you can go in overtime for the second day in a row? It’s okay guys, it’s only 1:00 am on the east coast. Please don’t close out this game with a win in regulation, sleep is overrated.
New Jersey got close to Reimer in the first minute of overtime. Then a costly turnover from Damon Severson gave San Jose a golden chance, yet luckily they couldn’t get a shot past Bernier. Mercer added another scoring chance, followed by Bernier saving a shot from the stick of Brett Burns as the Sharks skated to the opposite end of the ice. Before the end of overtime, Burns would add another shot in the extra frame’s last ten seconds.
Shootout
Unlike Friday’s game in Los Angeles, five extra minutes wasn’t enough to decide this one. It was San Jose’s first skills competition of the season and New Jersey’s second following Sunday’s loss against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Logan Couture scored as the first shooter for the Sharks with a five-hole goal. Bratt immediately answered with a shot past Reimer’s outstretched pad that just barely went over the goal line.
Alexander Holtz was given a shot in his second NHL career game, but his shot was stopped by Reimer. Surprisingly Damon Severson was chosen as New Jersey’s third shooter and shot a wrist shot up top versus Reimer to break a 1-1 shoot-out tie.
Severson redeems himself after an absolutely awful showing on Friday and New Jersey ends their road trip with a 1-1-1 record. Is it what we wanted? No, but with no Dougie Hamilton or Jack Hughes finishing this trip above the .500 mark is a victory.