“Devils Celebrate Victory as Jesper Bratt Nets OT Winner Against Canucks”
NEWARK, NJ — The New Jersey Devils are playing so well this season that they’re winning even when coach Lindy Ruff is unhappy with their game.
Jesper Bratt grabbed a power play with 43 seconds left in overtime and the Devils defeated the Vancouver Canucks 5-4 on Monday night after wasting a three-goal lead.
“I just think we got lucky,” Ruff said after the Devils improved to 9-1-1 in their last 11 games. “I think the last 10 minutes of the third period was all Vancouver. I’m not going to sugarcoat anything. They had two or three chances, they could have won the game. I feel like we were lucky.”
Brattman. The hero we deserve. pic.twitter.com/FOi6pEg4jQ
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) February 7, 2023
Not only did the Devils lead 4-1, they also failed to capitalize on a 37-second two-man lead in the third period after the Canucks leveled the game 4-0. They needed another overtime power play to improve to 9-4 in overtime this season.
New Jersey went into overtime in six of their last seven games and won five of them.
“Now we know we’re a really good hockey team,” said Jack Hughes, who scored his 34th and 35th goals of the season and set up Bratt’s game-winner. “We have a good squad so I mean I don’t know if it’s adversity or anything like that. We just had to play the full 60 minutes and we did it, but tonight was a bit of a quiet night but we emerged victorious.”
Ondrej Palat also scored twice each and Vitek Vanecek made 26 saves as he won his 10th straight game for New Jersey.
Andrei Kuzmenko, Luke Schenn, Curtis Lazar and Phillip Di Giuseppe scored for the Canucks, who played for Anthony Beauvillier, Aatu Raty and a for the first time since captain and leading scorer Bo Horvat left for the Islanders during the All-Star break conditional first round selection 2023.
“I thought we played a hell of a game away after the break,” said Canucks center JT Miller. “We had a lot of heart today, a lot of pride, character as a team. I think that’s a really good hockey team over there and we could easily have finished 4-1.”
Collin Delia made 29 saves for Vancouver, but he didn’t get a shot at Bratt’s one-off, set up by a cross-ice pass from Hughes. Delia had stopped Hughes on an overtime breakaway.
“I didn’t read it well,” Delia said of Bratt’s 20th goal. “I have to slap this on my feet so I can have a view of it. I went there to slide there and I didn’t see the clearance.
The Devils appeared to be in control as Palat scored twice and Hughes once in the middle of the second period within 50 seconds to give New Jersey a 4-1 lead.
The Canucks, who worked hard for new coach Rick Tocchet, have fought back. Schenn scored with a point shot at 4:31 in the second period and Lazar hit close with 27 seconds left.
Di Giuseppe tied the game at 4:02 with a 2-on-1 chance.
Kuzmenko gave the Canucks a 3:35 lead after the opening faceoff with a great move and shot. Hughes closed out the contest, narrowly beating Delia with a backhander on a 1-on-1 chance.
REMARKS: The Devils won both games of the season series, deciding 5-2 in Vancouver in November. … Beauvillier ran on the Canucks’ top line with Elias Pettersson at center and Andrei Kuzmenko on left wing. … Devils D John Marino played for the first time since December 20. He missed 17 games with an upper body injury.
NEXT
canucks: Continue the swing in the New York area and face the Rangers on Wednesday night.
Devil: Play host of the Kraken on Thursday.
CBS New York team
Source: www.cbsnews.com
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