After the Devils did enough in 60 minutes of hockey to secure a point on home ice for the first time in seven weeks during Sunday night’s game against the first-place Islanders, coach Lindy Ruff sent his best face-off man out to take the draw for the start off the 3-on-3 overtime.
Everything worked just about perfectly for the Devils. Travis Zajac won the draw, then headed for the bench with Jester Bratt hopping over the boards to join P.K. Subban and Pavel Zacha. From there, Subban skated behind his net with the puck and passed from the side of his net to the Islanders blue line for Zacha, who skated into the zone. Zacha then passed left to the slot for Zacha, who quickly slide the puck to his left for Subban in the circle.
And then BOOM! Subban’s slapper beat Isles goalie Ilya Sorokin, and at long last the Devils won again at Prudential Center after 10 losses in a row, all of them in regulation.
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Or so everyone thought.
The Devils celebrated this apparent 3-2 OT victory like they’d just won a playoff game, and the cheers from the 1,800 fans in the stands blended in with the loud victory music.
This was a nice win.
And then it wasn’t, and eventually it ended up 3-2 Islanders in a shootout.
After 67 seconds of the Devils embracing on the ice with smiles of relief on their faces, one of the referees skated to center ice, turned on his mic and announced that Subban’s goal was under video review to check for off-sides.
In question was whether Bratt was standing on the blue line at the boards or just inside the Islanders zone as Zacha skated the puck in.
Man, was this close.
“I’ve looked at it,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. “I really can’t be conclusive on whether he’s over or not over.”
The review lasted more than three minutes, then after “Let it Be” played on the sound system from start to finish, the verdict was in.
They didn’t let it be. No goal.
From there, the Devils had more chances to win. They got a power play in OT and didn’t score. Then when the game went to a shootout, Nikita Gusev went first and scored, and this 1-0 lead stood until the Isles tied it in the third round on a do-or-die shot by Anthony Beauvillier.
On they went and next up was Devils center Jack Hughes, who was denied after making some dazzling moves to the net when he started the fourth round. With the game on the line again, Islanders winger Oliver Wahlstrom beat Scott Wedgewood and it was over again, this time for good. The Isles won to stretch their winning streak to nine.
This one stung.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Ruff said. “I feel for the players. They battled hard. Our goalie battled hard and made some great saves for us. We took it down to the third (shootout) shooter. If we get one more save (from Wedgewood) or if we score with our previous shooter (Zacha), we’ve got the game. There was a lot of crazy stuff that happened.”
A lot indeed.
The opening faceoff was delayed a few minutes because Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson was put into COVID protocol after taking part in the pre-game warmups. Later, a Devils’ 1-0 lead evaporated when the Isles scored a fluky goal with one second to go in the first period. Then in the third, Ruff thought the Devils had a bad call go against them when Nathan Baston was whistled for interference a second about a second before Jersey scored a go-ahead goal that didn’t count.
“You ask your team to battle hard,” Ruff said. “We battled hard. We battled back. One second (left) we got a goal scored against us, which is really a dagger a lot of times. We still battled back and end up tying the game. It looks like we got the go-ahead goal. The winning goal. Both were taken away. It looks like late in the shootout we’re going to win it.
“There are ways we could have been better, but I feel for the pain the players are going through.”
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