Newark, NJ- Defensive man Lubomir Visnovsky scored twice and goalie Kari Lehtonen turned away 38 shots to lead the New Jersey Devils to a 4-1 defeat of the Los Angeles Kings Saturday morning.
Visnovsky, the BRHL2 leading scoring amongst blue liners, netted the games first goal at 12:45 of the first period. With the Kings Kris Russell in the sin bin for interference, Visnovsky fired home a rebound of a John Carlson shot to put the Devils (10-4-1) up one with the power play goal. Shane Doan had the second assist on the goal. The power play featured four shots on Kings goalie Tuukka Rask during its 26 second duration.
An unlucky bounce would give the Kings (8-7-1) the tie in the second period. Niklas Hagman flipped a puck towards the net that hit Devils Marcel Goc in the left leg, and redirected between Lehtonens legs at 6:22. Marc Savard and Milan Lucic were credited assists on the lucky goal.
Goc would make amends for this soccer-style own goal by putting the puck in the Kings net in the third. With close to six minutes to remaining, the Devils fourth line created havoc for the Kings. Using an aggressive style of cycling, the line, along with defenseman Tom Gilbert and Brent Seabrook, peppered Rask for 30 seconds straight. During that span, the Devils fired eight shots towards Rask that either missed the net or were blocked by Kings players. It was the ninth attempt that found pay-dirt. Goc followed up a Jeff Tambellini missed and sent home a puck by a scrambling Rask at 14:04. Mason Raymond was awarded with the other hard-working assist.
With 1:06 left in the third, the Devils got an insurance tally. Valtteri Filppula dug a puck out of his own corner and found Shane Doan at the blue line. Doan took the pass and skated pass the pinching defenseman for a clear breakaway. Doan deked and went upstairs with the backhand to give the Devils a commanding 3-1 lead. For Doan it was his sixth of the year and 19th point, which is good for a share of second place in the BRHL2.
Just 16 seconds later, Visnovsky scored his third of the year when his flipping dump-in took a strange bounce of the ice, and got by Rask.
The Devils return to action in three days and when they face the division rival New York Rangers (6-8-1) at home.
SWAMP THINGS- Devils committed no penaltiesPatrik Berglund point-scoring streak snapped and fell to 2nd in BRHL2 scoringDoan now has an 11-game point-scoring streak15,319 (season high) was the attendance in Newark.