In Ottawa, the New Jersey Devils took 53 shots on Monday night and still needed a shootout to defeat the Senators, 4-3.
“You can get 53 shots if they’re all [from] the outside and no good, but I felt tonight we attacked the net, we played to the inside, we got quality chances,” Devils coach Alain Nasreddine said. “I felt that we could have had a lot more than three goals. Their goalie played well.”
Mackenzie Blackwood made 35 saves in the win.
Vladislav Namestnikov and Chris Tierney scored shorthanded goals 33 seconds apart in the third period to give the Sens a 3-2 lead.
“It seems that so many times he stands on his head and we just can’t seem to get him the extra point,” Tierney said. “It [stinks]. It feels like he’s giving us a chance to win every night and we’re just not picking up a couple of extra points. Hopefully he can keep playing that way and we can find ways to win.”
Tyler Ennis also scored for the Sens.
“I don’t think we had enough guys play their best game tonight,” Senators coach D.J. Smith said. “In saying that, we did have a lot of guys that did work. If you look, individually, there were some guys that really played hard tonight. We need more guys, but we’re coming off the break. Guys were rusty, for sure.”
Damon Severson and Kevin Rooney scored for the Devils.
“I think we all know now the way we have to play,” the Devils’ Nico Hischier said. “… We’ve got to play with a lot of speed, make their [defensemen] turn, and that’s how we can create offense. I think now our guys in here understand that.”
Kyle Palmieri forced overtime with a late third period goal.
“Obviously not exactly how we drew it up in the end, but we’ve talked about resiliency for a while now,” Nasreddine said. “At 3-2, it was not a good way to go down, but the guys found a way, we tied it up and then found a way to get two points in the end.”
[WATCH: All Devils vs. Senators highlights]
Marcus Hogberg made 50 for the Senators, a rookie record for Ottawa.
“I like when it’s a lot of shots. I had a lot of fun out there,” Hogberg said.
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