In Boston, Scott Wedgewood made 40 saves, and kept things alive, literally and figuratively, in a 1-0 win for the New Jersey Devils over the Bruins on Sunday afternoon.
“I mean we obviously have been on the bad side of things for a bit here,” Wedgewood said. “Obviously we addressed it this morning and talked about what we wanted to do defensively, and we accomplished our goal.
“We kept them outside for most of the night and any opportunities they did get, we tied up sticks and limited rebounds and just kind of took care of our own end first. And it paid off. It’s a gutsy 1-0 win.”
Kyle Palmieri scored the game’s only goal in the third period.
“It feels awesome,” Palmieri said. “I think after this past week we took the opportunity this morning to really examine our game individually, as a team, and sometimes there were games over that homestand that we played well and played tight games and maybe deserved a little better or a closer result. But obviously, the game [Saturday] afternoon (a 6-3 home loss to the New York Rangers) was a bit of a low point for our group as a whole, and I think it was time for us to take a look at the things that made us successful.
“I think coming on the road against a team like Boston, it’s almost sink or swim. We had to go out there and play with urgency and compete. That’s exactly what we did, and I think as a group we can be really proud of our effort tonight.”
Boston dropped to 13-6-3.
“We had enough looks around the net to certainly generate a couple of goals tonight, I thought,” Boston head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I thought a lot of pucks hit [Wedgewood]. I thought he made some good saves, obviously, especially in the third period.
“I think we did a little better job attacking with our forward group against their D as the game went on. I think we were settling for a little bit of low to high [earlier], they typically really converge toward their net, so that’s a good outlet. And then as the game went on, I thought we could inside a little more. We did, but we didn’t finish. You’re not going to win if you don’t put some goals on the board.”
The Devils improved to 8-11-2.
“I mean, that’s a very threatening power play, meaning anyone of those guys can score,” Wedgewood said. “And we did a good job of just kind of getting in certain lanes and giving them low-quality chances and tying up sticks when we did give them rebounds. It was kind of easy to sit behind there and let those guys do the work.”
Tuukka Rask made 24 saves in the loss.
“They’ve had our number this year,” the Bruins’ Charlie Coyle said. “And there’s been a few games against them where for one reason or another, we’re not ready from the start. And we have to be. We have to play like something big is on the line, and that’s the case. There’s two points up for grabs each night.”
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