In Newark, Brad Marchand made his presence felt with a goal and two points in regulation and the deciding marker in the skills competition as the Boston Bruins upended the New Jersey Devils, 3-2.
Tuukka Rask made 20 saves in the win.
“[Tuukka’s] one of the best goalies in the League and he’s the backbone to our team,” Marchand said. “Every great team has a great goalie, and that’s what we need out of him if we want to go all the way this year. We need him to be big, and he was tonight. That’s what he does, even when the game gets a little rough for us, he’s calming, and when you see that out of your goalie, when he’s making the big save, it allows you to kind of calm down and get back on track and we had that tonight.”
Miles Wood tied the game at 1-1 when scored for New Jersey
“I liked that we were able to fight back,” Devils’ head coach Lindy Ruff said. “We were determined to get back in the game. And, you know, if you look at the overtime, we had the better chances to win it in overtime. And I think if we compete that hard and skate as well as we did in the second and third, we’re going to be OK.”
Nick Ritchie also scored for the Bruins.
“We let a lead get away in the third period and that’s not a road we want to go down,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I know it was only a one-goal lead, but still we’ve got to play winning hockey again, and I don’t think we did in the third at times and we paid the price. It’s a good teaching moment for us and still able to get the two points. It’s nice, but that’s an area that we’re going to have to clean up.”
The Devils’ Ty Smith notched his first career NHL goal when he tied the game at 2-2 to force extra time and the shootout.
Watch complete game highlights here
Mackenzie Blackwood made 35 saves in the loss.
“We looked tight and looked like we hadn’t played in 10 months,” Ruff said. “And [Blackwood] stood tall for us, obviously gave us a chance in the second and third. And I thought our game really came around the last couple of periods and overcame.”
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