The New Jersey Devils fell to the Anaheim Ducks 5-1 as they were unable to keep up with one of the best teams in the league. The Devils were outplayed from the opening puck drop and Cory Schneider was the only reason they even had a shot tonight. Unfortunately, Schneider did not make it past the first period as he left the game with an upper-body injury. The Devils never announce specifics in regards to injuries, but it looked like a neck/collarbone that had Cory Schneider bothered after saving a shot from Matt Belesky. That play happened just three and a half minutes into the first and Schneider shook it off to play the rest of the period, so hopefully it’s nothing serious. I don’t want to speculate, but thinking logically, if something was broken then Schneider wouldn’t have been able to continue past that shot.
Aside from Schneider getting injured, the first period was pretty bad on its own. Anaheim got on the board just minutes after Schneider got hurt and it’s fair to wonder if that injury played a part in the goal. However, I don’t think it did as Schneider was perfect the rest of the frame stopping 14 of 15 shots. Corey Perry, one of the best goal scorers in the NHL threw a puck through the crease and it hit Schneider’s stick and ricocheted in. It was a pretty poor goal by Schneider’s standards, but we’ll give him a pass seeing as he’s been outstanding the last few months and he was the only reason the Ducks didn’t score five that period.
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The Devils were outshot 15-5 in the first (it actually would get worse) but they were able to knot the score at one. 14 minutes into the first, Mike Cammalleri drew a penalty and the power play was able to cash in. The Czech connection of Marek Zidlicky, Patrik Elias and Martin Havlat combined to put the puck in the net. Zidlicky and Elias worked the puck down to Havlat who whipped one at Ilya Bryzgalov and caught him off-guard. The puck went in through his humongous big five hole and the Devils somehow were right in the game.
It wasn’t a good period by any means, but being tied at one felt like a mini victory. Then Keith Kinkaid came out to start the second and all those good feelings got washed away. Our starting goalie was injured and to top it off, the Ducks would score on two of the first three shots they fired at Kinkaid. It would be unfair to blame the young goalie as it was an extremely difficult situation for him to come into cold. The Devils managed just one shot in the frame (told you it got worse) so he didn’t get any support from the 18 skaters in front of him. It was just a bad, bad period in every way possible. At least Havlat, who got hit in the hand with a puck, was able to return.
The Ducks would put the game away in the third scoring two more goals to make the score a laugher. Kinkaid stopped 21 of 25 shots, many of which he had no chance on. He did the best he could in relief of Cory Schneider, but the offense couldn’t do anything. 15 shots in a game is pathetic. They had a slightly better period shot-wise in the third, registering nine, but the key is getting goals and they could not. After a huge, impressive win in Los Angeles the Devils could not build on that momentum against the Ducks. They will finish their California road trip in San Jose on Monday night before having over a week off including the All-Star break. Let’s hope they can end the trip with a win in NorCal.