In Newark, the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs handed the New Jersey Devils their first loss in 14 games to end their 13-game win streak, in a 2-1 decision.
“It wasn’t our best start, and we’ve had a couple of starts like that during this run and came up either down one or tied, but they’re a good team,” New Jersey forward Erik Haula said. “They put the puck in the net twice and then we’re behind, but we fought, and I thought we left everything out there and finished strong.
“Unfortunately, the streak is over.”
John Tavares and Pontus Holmberg scored for the Maple leafs in the first period for a 2-0 lead.
“We needed to get a win here today, no matter who we’re playing,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I mean, that’s a tremendous hockey team over there and they deserve everything that they’ve gotten here to date. It’s a character win for our team, given what we’re going through here and to do it on the road against this team with how they’ve been playing, with that type of push and in the atmosphere here tonight, this is a real good day for the Leafs.”
Matt Murray made 34 saves in the Maple Leafs win.
Toronto improved to 11-5-5.
Dougie Hamilton scored for New Jersey in the third period to get them within one, but Murray slammed the door after that.
“It’s definitely frustrating, but nothing we can do because the refs make the call and there’s nothing that’s going to change it, so we’ve got to stick with it,” Devils captain Nico Hischier said. “I think we did a good job but came up short.”
New Jersey dropped to 16-4-0.
“I think we played unbelievable defensively, and I thought our first period kind of set us up for the win tonight,” Murray said. “They had momentum throughout the second with a lot of power plays, but our first period is where we really got the job done and were able to hold on.
“At the end of the game, they’re just gritty so anything you can do to try to keep the puck out of the net, because they were really pushing.”
Vitek Vanecek made 18 saves in the New Jersey loss.
“Nobody feels good, I don’t feel good, don’t like the feeling,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. “I don’t like losing and I know it’s been a while, but you don’t want that feeling. Now you’ve got to get over that, get ready for your next game, be able to answer the bell and continue to prove we can be the team that was able to run all those games together.”
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