In Newark Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Kings’ Ilya Kovalchuk returned to New Jersey and promptly did something he has done very rarely this season, he scored a goal.
Kovalchuk picked up his 11th of the season in a 5-1 thumping of the Devils.
He was booed at every touch of the puck by the Devils’ faithful.
“[The reception] isn’t something you’re expecting, but that’s OK,” Kovalchuk said. “You know that’s their emotions and that’s how they react. I was happy when I scored; that’s always the best answer.”
Tyler Toffoli struck twice for LA, and Dion Phaneuf and Adrian Kempe added single markers.
“We got that power play to start the third and that was huge,” Toffoli said. “The plan was getting the puck to the net and Kopitar found me in the slot and it kind of kept rolling from there.”
Jack Campbell made 29 saves for the win.
“I can’t believe people booed [Kovalchuk] because he’s the nicest guy in the world,” Campbell said. “But to see the game he had, it takes a lot of mental toughness. It just shows his character. We all love him, and I was happy he was able to score. Most importantly, we won the game so I know he’s most happy about that.”
Pavel Zacha scored the lone goal for the Devils.
“For whatever reason, it unraveled,” the Devils’ Andy Greene said. “We actually played pretty well in the first two periods. We were doing a lot of good things but we weren’t getting rewarded for it. They get that one, then the third and fourth. We’ve got to be way stingier and make sure they don’t get those.”
New Jersey dropped to 20-25-7.
[WATCH: All Kings vs. Devils highlights]
Keith Kinkaid made 20 saves in the loss.
“It seems like we put together a good game here and there. It’s not like we’re not working hard because they’re mental mistakes. It just seems when that happens we’re getting busted for it. We compound one mistake into two or three,” Greene said.
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