The Devils finally got burned by the thing that had been lurking in plain sight.
Special teams decided the night in Winnipeg, where New Jersey dropped a 4-2 game after rallying from a two-goal hole in 44 seconds. The Devils had won five straight going in, but they left with a loss that came down to the power play - theirs and the Jets’.
New Jersey went 0-for-4 with the extra man. Winnipeg cashed in twice on four chances. In a game that was still alive in the third period, that was the difference.
Kyle Connor opened the scoring with a power-play goal to make it 2-0 in the first. Then, after the Devils had clawed all the way back, the turning point arrived on a too-many-men penalty. Dawson Mercer buried the winner on the ensuing power play, and Winnipeg’s social team piled on with a post showing Mercer and the line “Expected Win Probability 100%.”
Mercer’s night was especially brutal for New Jersey. He scored twice against his former team, and Nico Daws stopped 19 shots to pick up his first win as a Jet.
Devils coach Sheldon Keefe didn’t sugarcoat the penalty that swung it. He called it “an unacceptable bench minor penalty that cost us.”
He also said the Devils looked like a team playing its fifth game in eight nights, which fits the way the third period unfolded. Winnipeg had more juice.
New Jersey didn’t have enough left to answer.
The Devils’ power play has been a problem, and this game only sharpened the issue. It’s sitting 26th in the NHL at 18%, and the unit again looked stuck. Keefe said, “We’re holding on to the puck too long,” and added, “It’s really slow.”
There have been flashes. Connor Brown joined the first unit against Edmonton and that group responded with a goal and an assist on the power play.
But Keefe’s message was clear: that wasn’t enough to settle the question. He pointed to the look with Arseny Gritsyuk and Dougie Hamilton on Long Island, where Hamilton tied the game on the power play, and said the Devils need to keep searching.
“change is not too far away,” Keefe said.
The Devils had given themselves a chance after falling behind early. Jesper Bratt cut the deficit to 2-1 just 1:14 into the second period, and Cody Glass tied it 44 seconds later.
For a moment, the game flipped. The building that had been loud from warmups went quiet.
But New Jersey never grabbed control after that. Instead, Winnipeg owned the third period.
“We clearly didn’t have it in the third period,” Keefe said. “The Jets found another level in the third, and we didn’t seem to have much energy to respond.”
Glass said the atmosphere was exactly what you’d expect in that building, calling it “crazy in warmups and crazier in the game.” Jake Allen, who made 21 saves, didn’t make much of the setting when asked about it. “It’s another game,” he said.
The bigger picture still leaves New Jersey at 2-1 on the road trip. And there was one more concern before the night was over: Johnathan Kovacevic left in the second period and did not return.
Keefe said he was getting imaging. If Kovacevic is out, Brenden Dillon will see more minutes.
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Kyle Connor matched Mercer with two goals of his own for the Jets, and Winnipegs ability to answer kept New Jersey from ever fully pulling away. The loss drops the Devils to 13-6-0, a reminder that even in a strong start to the season, missed chances can turn a winnable night into a frustrating one. [Read more 🡒]