Here are some observations from the game:
• Goaltender Jake Allen battled all night. He came up with some tremendous saves and probably deserved a better fate than the loss. Two on Nathan MacKinnon himself. In the first period, MacKinnon was all alone cutting to the net and tried to fool Allen by going against the grain inside a post Allen just vacated. However, Allen reached back with the glove for the save. But his best save was in the second period when he made a split save on a one-timer on MacKinnon. Allen just got a piece of the puck with his blocker and then the puck went off the post. It was a phenomenal desperation save. And maybe his best of the season.
• Trailing 3-0, the Devils pulled Allen with six minutes remaining in regulation. Kelly scored an empty-net goal at 16:05.
• The Devils “scored” twice in the first period, but both goals were waved off, and rightly so. On the first, Jesper Bratt batted an airborne puck over the shoulder of goalie Scott Wedgewood and into the net. But he played the puck with a clear high stick. He even knew it, shaking his head and smiling. On the second, the puck was in the crease and several Devils were jamming at the puck. It appeared that Stefan Noesen had poked the puck into the net. But after a review the referees ruled that Wedgewood had the puck covered. Both were the right calls, but unfortunate for New Jersey.
• The Devils were victimized in the first period by a couple of Jersey connects. Ross Colton, a New Jersey native, opened the scoring with his ninth of the season four minutes into the game. The Avalanche would take a 2-0 with five minutes remaining in the opening period when Logan O’Connor, the son of former Devil Myles O’Connor, re-directed a pass into the goal.
"We started the game well, but the other 10 minutes wasn't good at all," captain Nico Hischier said. "We had D zone mistakes that ended up in the back of our net. They had a plan after that and didn't give us a lot on the rush, were above us. We had a hard time with it."
