Devils continue historic road success with 5-2 win at Kings
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Erik Haula, Nikita Okhotiuk and Ryan Graves scored in the second period, and the New Jersey Devils became the first NHL team to win 17 of their first 20 road games by defeating 5-2 to the Los Angeles Kings. night
Tomas Tatar had a power-play goal, Jesper Bratt scored an empty netter and Jack Hughes had two assists as the surprising Devils improved to 17-2-1 on the road, including six straight. Mackenzie Blackwood made 34 saves, stopping a Kevin Fiala penalty in the third period.
“It was like a week or two ago when (Devils coach) Lindy (Ruff) put our home and away record up on the board. And honestly, that’s probably the first time we realized it was that,” Haula said. “We’re doing a good job right now of moving on to the next team and trying to play our best game.”
Fiala and Anze Kopitar scored on the power play, but Jonathan Quick allowed four goals on 27 shots and the Kings snapped their three-game winning streak.
“I think it was disappointing that we didn’t score on our chances,” Los Angeles forward Adrian Kempe said. “The power play was good. We didn’t get enough 5-on-5, I guess, and that’s a different kind. of frustration tonight.”
The Devils opened the game with three goals in the second after both teams found their backs to the net on the power play in the first.
“I think you could say we got away with it a little bit in the first one,” said Haula, who scored on a 2-on-1 run at 2:37 of the period to give New Jersey a 2-1 lead. “They put us on our heels, and Blackie was fantastic today. So we came in here 1-1, and then we found out.”
Kopitar tied it at 6:48 by deflecting Drew Doughty’s shot from the blue line, but the Devils regained the lead 52 seconds later when Okhotiuk beat Quick under his right blocker on a long shot.
Graves made it 4-2 with 9:03 left when his shot from the left point took an unexpected redirection off the skate of defenseman Sean Walker.
“Every point counts,” Blackwood said. “Looking back at the end of a season, once you get there, you say, ‘Oh, we should have had these two or these two.’ But you never know which game is going to be the difference going in, so that every point, every two points matters.”
MAN TRAVELER
Ruff is no stranger to success on the road. His 2006-07 Buffalo Sabers were one of five teams in league history to win 15 of their first 19 road games, a mark Ruff’s Devils surpassed with a 6-2 victory in Anaheim Friday.
“I can’t explain it,” Ruff said. “You know, we’re finding ways to win, and I think every team, every coach knows that you’re going to have to win games in different ways. … I think our game, our detail of our game has been better on the road. We handled the puck better on the road. I think sometimes at home there’s a tendency to be a little flashier, and some of our puck plays have hurt us.”
Buffalo finished 25-12-4 on the road in 2006-07 and won the Presidents’ Trophy before losing to Ottawa in the Eastern Conference Finals.
HOME SWEET HOME
Kopitar hit his 200th career home run, becoming the fourth player in franchise history to do so. He joined Luc Robitaille, who leads the Kings with 322 home runs, Marcel Dionne (288) and Dave Taylor (233).
UNTIL THE NEXT
Devils: Monday in Sant Josep.
Kings: Host Dallas Thursday night.
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