Nugent-Hopkins scores twice & Lazar notches his first goal with the Oilers in a 5-3 defeat to the Devils on Saturday afternoon at Prudential Center
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NEWARK, NJ – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored twice while Curtis Lazar notched his first goal with the club, but the Edmonton Oilers fell to their second straight defeat on Saturday afternoon in a 5-3 defeat to the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center in the first of back-to-back games.
After falling behind 2-0 off goals from Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt, Nugent-Hopkins made it 2-1 through 40 minutes before former Oilers winger Connor Brown scored shorthanded in the third period to restore his team’s two-goal lead & hand the Blue & Orange their second straight game with a goal against on the power play.
Hughes notched his second goal of the game 1:17 later, and Nugent-Hopkins made it 4-2 with Edmonton’s playing six-on-five, but an empty-netter for Dawson Mercer got the goal right back before Curtis Lazar added late consolation with his first tally in Blue & Orange with 1.7 seconds left in regulation.
The Oilers continue their road trip on Sunday afternoon at Little Caesars Arena against the Detroit Red Wings.
There was no scoring through the first period in Newark, though there were plenty of good looks from the Oilers in those opening 20 minutes that just needed someone in Blue & Orange to take the shot instead of trying to make the extra pass.
The Oilers outshot the Devils 9-4 in the opening frame, including the first seven in their favour, but none of those shots came on their opening power play when Evan Bouchard was high-sticked by Dawson Mercer just 1:34 into the contest in a composed early kill from New Jersey.
On a three-on-two rush at even strength soon after, defenceman Darnell Nurse had the puck in between the circles with an opening to shoot before trying to feed it to Vasily Podkolzin on the left side, though the Russian’s lefthandedness made it a challenging play as the chance escaped the Oilers.
When the Devils were on their first power play past the midway mark of the frame, the Oilers looked more likely to score with two separate odd-man rushes that didn’t result in any scoring opportunities. Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid got out on the kill later in the penalty, getting loose on a two-on-one that saw the German get tracked down by the back-pressuring Devils as he tried to slide a pass to McDavid that was stopped by the sliding Dougie Hamilton.
At the end of the Devils’ power play, Andrew Mangiapane suffered a similar fate when his attempted feed to Nugent-Hopkins was taken away,
The Devils were the first to crack the scoresheet at ‘the Rock’ when centre Jack Hughes blazed through the neutral zone with speed and split defencemen Brett Kulak and Ty Emberson before wristing his effort far side on Calvin Pickard to make it 1-0 for the hosts at 11:53 of the middle frame.
Pickard, making his second start of the season, bailed out Trent Frederic when the forward bobbled the puck as the last man back, needing the shot stopper to make an important intervention to keep it a one-goal game before he stopped Andrej Palat in close off a nice feed from below the goal line from Jack Hughes later in the period.
The Oilers’ netminder didn’t get any help from his teammates in the final five minutes of the period when defenceman Mattias Ekholm drove centre Nico Hischier into him on a partial breakaway, resulting in a holding penalty and a quick dispatch from the Devils’ power play off the faceoff for a two-goal lead.
Hischier won the ensuing faceoff to Hughes, who redirected it into open space on the right side for Jesper Bratt to make a backhand move on Pickard into a wide-open net for the 2-0 advantage just four seconds into Ekholm’s minor penalty.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was able to halve the New Jersey lead prior to the intermission just 2:14 after the Devils made it 2-0, sliding to the back door unmarked as Connor McDavid drew the attention of three Devils skaters before the Oilers captain sifted the perfect pass to him for a top-shelf finish.
It was Nugent-Hopkins’ third goal of the season, giving him goals in back-to-back games after scoring on Thursday night against the Islanders.
Forward Jack Roslovic picked up the secondary assist for his first point in an Oilers uniform, playing in his third game with the Blue & Orange.
Old friend turned foe.
Now a member of the Devils, former Oilers winger Connor Brown condemned his old team to their second straight game with a shorthanded goal against when the puck was knocked down for a breakaway that he made no mistake with by burying it over the glove of Pickard at 9:23 of the third period.
Just under two minutes later, a turnover by the Oilers in their own zone left Jack Hughes wide open to accept a pass behind the defence from Jesper Bratt before dangling Pickard and pulling the puck back onto his forehand to easily put home his second goal of the game to increase the lead to 4-1.
Edmonton pulled Pickard for the extra attacker with plenty of time remaining as they attempted to erase a three-goal deficit, with Nugent-Hopkins converting his second goal of the contest with 3:30 remaining to make it 4-2 by tapping in McDavid’s terrific redirected pass. Darnell Nurse recorded the second helper.
An empty-netter for Dawson Mercer got the goal right back for the Devils, and a late consolation for former New Jersey forward Curtis Lazar with 1.7 seconds left in regulation marked his first goal as a member of the Oilers before time expired on their second straight loss in a 5-3 final.
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