Somehow, Jake Allen always manages to find himself on a bad team. Allen was traded to the New Jersey Devils by the Montreal Canadiens at the deadline. He just went from one bad situation to the other, with a slight change in team colors.
On Saturday, the Ottawa Senators came to Newark, and hung a 5-2 loss on New Jersey. Whatever good vibes the Devils had been generating in a two-game streak, evaporated in the mist of the Hackensack River.
Joonas Korpisalo made 18 saves in the win.
The Senators moved to 29-36-4,ending a three-game skid.
“I thought we played the right way, used the whole bench and thought our penalty-killing did a great job against their power play … so it was a real good effort,” Ottawa interim coach Jacques Martin said.
The Senators took a 1-0 lead on a shorthanded strike by Mathieu Joseph at 4:56 of the opening stanza, scoring off a turnover leading to a breakaway.
In the middle frame, New Jersey replied with a pair of goals to take a 2-1 lead in the game.
Jesper Bratt tied it, 1-1, off a breakaway with 23 seconds gone in the second.
Tomas Nosek then 36 seconds later for a 2-1 lead to New Jersey, scoring from the left circle.
“We bounced back at the start of the second, then we were not executing,” Nosek said. “A lot of bad plays, bad passes. We need to dig deep, and everybody needs to play better tomorrow (at the New York Islanders).”
Problem for New Jersey was their lack of defense the rest of the middle frame, Ottawa scored three straight goals on just four shots.
It took less than five minutes.
“We didn’t panic after those two quick goals in the second, and [Korpisalo] was solid, the penalty kill was solid and in general, I think we managed the puck well,” Joseph said. “We kept our composure, stayed calm on the bench, and we found a way to keep going and get the lead.”
The Devils dropped to 34-33-4.
“We didn’t play well at all,” New Jersey interim coach Travis Green said. “Everything I said the other night that I liked (in a 4-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday), we did the opposite. It didn’t look like our team was ready for their speed. When you’re not making two passes in a row, it’s pretty hard to get any traction.”
Ya think?
New Jersey went scoreless on four power play chances.
“We had a couple of turnovers we’d like to have back,” Green said. “The turnovers were part of it. Individually, we did not play up to our capabilities.”
The Detroit Red Wings are six points clear of New Jersey for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.
Ottawa’s Ridly Greig knotted the game, 2-2, at 4:06, scoring off a wrister.
Angus Crookshank scored from the right circle to give the Senators 3-2 lead. at 6:02.
“I scored a couple times like that (with the Belleville Senators of the American Hockey League), but it’s just one of those shots where you don’t really feel the puck off the blade, and normally, those kinds of shots have a funny way of finding the back of the net,” Crookshank said.
Thomas Chabot extended the advantage to 4-2 at 9:01.
“I think up two goals, we knew they were going to come and some of their top guys were going to try and cheat a little bit behind us,” Chabot said. “I think everybody did a great job keeping the player in front of them, not forcing anything, and obviously, that led to a lot more scoring chances.”
Drake Batherson added salt to the wound with a marker midway through the third for the 5-2 final count on the scoreboard.
“The game we played tonight should be our standard for the way we want to play,” Chabot said. “We’ve been seeing it at times this season, but for some reason, we kind of get away from that. When we do play this way, I think we can obviously play against any good team and any team in the League.”
Allen made 20 saves in the loss.
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