CALGARY – Through nearly the first half of the game against one of the top teams in the league, the Devils matched the Calgary Flames but three goals in just over two minutes midway through the second period were the difference as New Jersey dropped their second straight game on their Western Canadian road trip by a score of 6-3.
Yegor Sharangovich, Dawson Mercer and P.K. Subban scored for the Devils while Matthew Tkachuk led the way for the home side with a goal and two assists.
Video: Scorched in Calgary | POST-GAME REPORT
Midway through the first, the Flames struck to open the scoring. Brett Ritchie spun and fired a wrist shot from the top of the circle past a screened Nico Daws.
Late in the period, the Devils tied the game. Dawson Mercer corralled a feed from Nico Hischier in the high slot and ripped it past Markstrom to make it 1-1.
The Flames got that goal back less than three minutes later. With 1:38 to go in the first, Andrew Mangiapane picked up a blocked shot at the top of the right circle and wristed it past Daws.
After one, shots on goal were 10-9 for the Devils.
Calgary carried the play early in the second, outshooting the Devils 7-4 five minutes in but the Devils struck to knot it up at 2-2 5:01 into the middle frame.
P.K. Subban ripped a shot from the point, surprising Markstrom for the equalizer. However, much like the first Devils goal, the Flames struck back quickly. 2:03 after the Subban goal, Dillon Dube ripped a long range shot past Daws to make it 3-2.
“It takes your energy away from you right away,” said Devils head coach Lindy Ruff on the pattern tonight of allowing goals quickly after scoring them. “We fought back there a couple of times. You’re looking for momentum and we couldn’t find it.”
Two minutes later, the Flames struck again. Matthew Tkachuk’s shot from the right face-off circle eluded Daws to put Calgary up by two.
After the goal, Daws was replaced in goal by Jon Gillies but that didn’t stop the Flames onslaught. Milan Lucic redirected a shot, giving the Flames a three-goal lead.
“That was unfortunate for the team because I really needed to come up with the save right off the bat,” said Gillies. It was the second straight game that Gillies entered the game in relief of Daws after a stretch of inactivity. Gillies said in these two games, he felt rusty.
“Rusty on the details but that’s part of it,” he said. “When you go a long time without playing, it’s nothing nobody else has to deal with. I had to manage it and do my best.”
Ruff added that while Daws was pulled in each of the last two games, the task at hand was an extremely tough one for the 20-year-old netminder.
“I put Nico through a pretty tough test. Probably an unfair test for a young goaltender. Back-to-back, came out of the game. Physically, playing back-to-back is tough, mentally getting prepared for the game is tough. We’ve asked a lot of him. Tonight he just didn’t have it,” Ruff stated.
“He’s developing as a young goaltender. He’s given us good games. But the test is a little bit too big for him.”
The Lucic goal came 62 seconds after Tkachuk’s marker and completed a span of three goals in 3:29 for the Flames.
In the final minute of the second, the Flames took a penalty for too many men on the ice.
After 40 minutes, shots were 25-24 for the Devils.
Nearly four minutes into the third, Yegor Sharangovich completed a nice tic-tac-toe play with a quick shot from the slot set up by Jesper Bratt and Jack Hughes to draw the Devils within two at 5-3.
Brett Ritchie took a double minor for high sticking midway through the third, giving the Devils power play a chance to get the game within striking distance but Flames were able to kill it off. It marked the second straight game that the Devils couldn’t convert on a four-minute power play.
“We had plays there,” said Ruff. “We missed the net on a couple plays, we made errant passes. It looked like fatigue in our power play. We moved it around too slow. We didn’t find our outs quick enough.”
With Gillies pulled for the extra attacker, Johnny Gaudreau scored an empty netter to ice the outcome. In the end, Gillies did recover and stopped 19 out of 20 shots.
“I felt alright from the start but that’s not what we wanted as a team. I thought we did a lot of good things tonight but a good team like that, I know a lot of those players over there and they’re top players in the NHL,” he said, noting that he had previously been a part of the Flames organization.
“It was a tough result but for being on a back-to-back we played as hard as we could.”