Entering Tuesday’s clash with Rangers, Devils had not played for more than two weeks due to an outbreak of coronavirus in the entire team. Thirteen players from the Devils squad recently left the COVD-19 protocol list.
Goalkeeper Mackenzie Blackwood, one of the first Devils players to trigger the COVID-19 domino effect, debuted for the first time in almost a month.
But it was the Blueshirts who came out of breath, out of breath and were defeated in the third period, losing their fourth game in a row in a 5-2 loss at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night.
The Rangers should be the team that was loose, the team that was sharp. However, the Devils proved to be all of that over the course of the 60 minutes, despite having only one training session to prepare for since the last game on January 31.
Entering the third period tied at 2-2 – without Jacob Trouba, who suffered an upper body injury in the second – the Rangers saw the Devils, who should be tired, refuse to waver while they made the most of their chances.
A deviation from Yegor Sharangovich proved to be the winner of the game, before Nicholas Merkley hit the puck in the air for the insurance count. Mikhail Maltsev’s empty net spilled some salt into the Rangers’ open wound.
Novice goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin kept the Rangers alive in the first period, stopping all 16 shots he faced to keep the game goalless. He deflected the escapes of Kyle Palmieri and Andreas Johnsson, including a series of five direct kicks in the 12th minute, before ending the night with 32 saves in 36 kicks.
Opening the intermediate frame on the penalty spot, Rangers woke up after gathering a handful of chances of lack of manpower and hitting six unanswered shots to start the period.
With Zibanejad in the area after elbowing Nathan Bastian, Pavel Zacha gave the Devils a 1-0 lead at 7:37. It was the first strong game goal that Rangers allowed in seven games and ended a streak of 22 out of 22 on penalties.
Colin Blackwell ended the Rangers with a scoring drought that lasted four periods, since losing to the Bruins on Saturday when he overtook Blackwood from the right circle at 11:32 am to his fourth point in his first six games as Ranger.
The Devils took the lead again at 17:14 with a shot from Will Butcher that seemed to deflect in Trouba. But Pavel Buchnevich tied again just over two minutes later with a kick from the left circle.