Devils’ Giveaways Give Away Game | GAME STORY

NEWARK - It was a see-saw of emotion for the New Jersey Devils against the Senators on Saturday night.

Down 1-0 after the first period, having conceded a shorthanded goal to Ottawa's Mathieu Joseph, turned into a 2-1 lead less than a minute into the second period. But momentum is a fickle thing because anyone can grab it at any moment. The Senators snatched the energy back.

After Jesper Bratt and Tomas Nosek scored 36 seconds apart in the opening minute of the second period, the Senators responded with three goals in just under five minutes to retake the lead.

"We played some solid hockey in the beginning of the season," Jesper Bratt said, "and then we started to try out dumb stuff, we started going East-to-West instead of North-South and we get away from our game."

The Devils looked like they were fighting the puck most of the night, forced into giveaways, totaling 13, compared to the Senators 7, almost getting in their own way.

"Everything I said the other night about our game that I liked," interim head coach Travis Green started, "we did the opposite tonight. Give (Ottawa) credit, they played well, they've got a lot of skill in their group, they can be very mobile. It didn't look like our team was ready for their speed. Our execution with our passing was not near good enough, recieving passes weren't near good enough." 

Jake Allen, making his forth consecutive start, finished the night with 20 saves on 25 shots and the Devils close their three-game homestand with a 2-1-0 record.

Ridly Greig, Angus Crookshank and Thomas Chabot scored the Senators second-period goals.

New Jersey play on Long Island Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m.

"It's all about winning tomorrow," Bratt said, "Get yourself ready mentally, physically, to get the rest you need and be a lot better as a team tomorrow."

Here are some observations from the game:

• The Devils spent six of the 20 opening minutes on the penalty kill, making for a very difficult first period on themselves.

Luke Hughes was called for a trip, the bench was called for a Too Many Men minor and John Marino took a high-sticking penalty, forcing the PKers into some heavy minutes.

First period special teams made the difference in the first, despite a successful 3-for-3 on the PK, the power play gave up a shorthanded goal. Erik Haula gave up the puck at the blue line to Mathieu Joseph and with no support behind the play, Joseph got his shot off, which trickled in behind Jake Allen.

The Devils first period power play lacked structure and the Senators penalty killers were relentless with their pressure, and aggressive on the puck carrier, resulting in incomplete and disjointed passing by New Jersey, which ultimately cost them giving up the shorthanded goal.

• Despite the opportunities of three power plays, the Devils were unable to officially record a single man-advantage shot on Joonas Korpisalo in the Senators net on those six minutes. It wasn't until the fourth power play where the Devils had two shots, though neither connected with the back of the net.

"The pressured us hard," Bratt said, "They kind of knew how to pressure us a little bit. We didn't keep the pucks off the yellow, I think we forced our plays a little bit and the last one, in the third period we actually got some momentum out of it. We got some good plays around, we skated well, we opened up for each other and before that we were a little spread out. We didn't really execute or help eachother."

• Jesper Bratt scored the Devils opening goal just 22 seconds into the second period. It was his 23rd goal of the season and his since Feb. 27 in San Jose. Bratt's first goal in 12 games moves him into a three-way tie for the lead in goals, joining both Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier with 23 this season.

• John Marino returned to the lineup after missing the last two games with an upper body injury. Santeri Hatakka came out of the lineup in his place.

• Of the Devils struggles with giveaways and their passing plays, Travis Green said: "When you are not making two consecutive passes in a row, it's pretty hard to gain any traction, you look disorganized and you look like we did tonight."