Long Island, NY- The New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils are heading opposite directions at the moment and following the Devils 3-1 loss Monday night, New Jersey is jeopardy of seeing the Islanders fly right by them.
With an uninspiring effort, the Devils fell behind in the second period. Mattias Ritola sent a shot wide of Kari Lehtonens net, but Matt Bradley scooped up the loose puck at 11:29 to open the games scoring.
3:17 later, New York would pad their lead. Devils Tom Gilbert was hit at his own blueline and coughed up the puck to Kyle Quincey. Quincey found a streaking Ritola, who snapped it home for his first of the season.
Things got worse in the third period when a slapshot from Tyler Ennis eluded an unfocused Lehtonen to put the islanders (7-4-1) up by three just 6:16 into the third period.
The only spark of life for the Devils (8-4-1) came at the 12:20 mark. Patrik Berglund extended his point scoring streak to 12 when he won a clean offensive zone draw back to Shane Doan. Doan made no mistake on the one timer.
But that was all the Devils could do against Cam Ward. And the New York victory put them within two points for the slumping Devils in the Atlantic Division, with New York having a game in hand.
The Devils attempt to right the ship in two days when the face the Calgary Flames.
SWAMP THINGS- Boyd Gordon served his first of a four game suspensionBrendan Morrison and Tom Gilbert were each -3 on the eveningDevils were outhit a lot to a littleBoth teams had 3 PP attempts, no one scored.
