Jake Allen made 36 saves and also stopped all three shootout tries to lead the New Jersey Devils to a 2-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday night in Las Vegas.
Connor Brown scored a goal and Jesper Bratt scored the game-winner in the shootout for New Jersey, which moved into the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with the win.
Pavel Dorofeyev scored a late power-play goal and Carter Hart finished with 32 saves for Vegas, which had a seven-game point streak snapped.
New Jersey took advantage of a Vegas turnover in its own zone to take a 1-0 lead at the 4:50 mark of the second period. Zach Whitecloud failed to control Noah Hanifin’s clearing pass along the left boards and Brown scooped up the loose puck and then drove the net, deking Hart and then tucking a wrist shot around his left pad and inside the right post for his second goal in the last three games.
Vegas took advantage of a Juho Lammikko tripping penalty on Ben Hutton to tie it with 4:11 left in regulation. Dorofeyev roofed a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle off a Mark Stone crossing pass for his ninth power-play goal of the season, tied for second with Detroit’s Alex DeBrincat in the NHL behind Wyatt Johnston of Dallas (12).
Vegas had several chances to win it in overtime with a 4-on-3 power play after Dawson Mercer went to the box for hooking Stone with 1:53 to go, but Mitch Marner had two shots ring off the post while Stone had another shot bounce off the far post.
Bratt deked Hart and roofed a backhand to start the second round of the shootout and Allen then gloved Stone’s wrist shot. After Hart made a pad save on Dougie Hamilton’s try, Allen poke-checked the puck off Marner’s stick to seal the win. The puck caromed into the net off Marner’s skate but was quickly disallowed for a double-hit.
The Golden Knights played without leading scorer Jack Eichel (illness) and defenseman Shea Theodore (upper-body), who both missed their first games this season.
–Field Level Media
