Sharks Take Bite Out of Devils Win Streak | GAME STORY

NEWARK, NJ - The San Jose Sharks got some help from the New Jersey Devils on Sunday night at Prudential Center.

The Sharks halt the Devils win streak at three after defeating New Jersey 1-0.

The opening goal was one of the more unfortunate ones you can see in a hockey game.

The own-goal.

With the puck deflecting off of Timo Meier past Jake Allen at 16:21 of the first period, the own-goal stood the test of time between the Devils and Sharks.

They get behind us once and we put one in our own net and that’s the difference in the game when you don’t get the offense," head coach Sheldon Keefe said. "To me, we didn’t have it. It looked like a lot of our top guys especially were out of gas here tonight.”

Sharks Nico Sturm split the ice between Dougie Hamilton and Justin Dowling to go one-on-one with Allen to start the play. Strum briefly lost the puck, unable to get a shot off, but recovered enough to blindly throw the puck back through the low slow on his backhand. As Allen was attempting to reset quickly, the puck took an unfortunate bounce off of Meier and straight past Allen.

"Yeah, tough one," Meier said. "Stop in the slot there, and it hits the stick before; just unlucky, but we had enough time to get it back, but it’s obviously a frustrating loss.”

“That’s just hockey, you get some of those that go your way this year, some of them will go against us," Jake Allen said. "That’s just the nature of the game. What can you do?”

The goal was the lone one of the game and credited to Sturm.

“On a lot of chances we tried to make an extra pass, we got too cute,” Meier said of his team's performance. “That’s what happens. Sometimes you’ve just got to find kind of the garbage ones in front of the net, get pucks through, and fight on the inside. We didn’t do that.”

Jake Allen stopped everything else that came his way, making 26 saves on 27 shots, while at the other end of the ice Mackenzie Blackwood made every save on the Devils 44 shots.

"I didn’t think we did enough through two periods, certainly of making it hard on their goaltender," Keefe added. "I thought we made life real easy on him, quite honestly."

"We definitely had our looks," Meier added. "But you’ve got to take advantage of them and put them in the back of the net. that’s how it works at the end. You’ve got to score goals to win a game. It’s just something where that extra inch, we didn’t fight hard enough to get that lucky bounce today.”

Here are some observations from the game:

• The Devils penalty killers have been on a tear. Against the San Jose Sharks they were once again perfect (3-for-3) extending their perfect streak to 19 straight penalty kills. The last goal the penalty killers conceded was on Oct. 25, against the New York Islanders when Anders Lee scored at the 14:03 mark of the first period.

• Jack Hughes was used for 1:22 shorthanded to bring his season total to 4:12 in Game 18 of the season. His penalty kill total already surpasses his total of all 82 games of last season (4:04).

• Zone entries on the power play, of which the Devils had just two against the Sharks, proved to be an unusually difficult task for the first unit against the Sharks on their first power play opportunity.

San Jose was able to clog up the blueline, preventing players like Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt, enter the zone with their masterful ease. Instead, on several occasions, they were forced to track back, while other opportunities at zone entries were broken up by smart Sharks sticks and poke checks.

The Devils were held without a shot on their first man advantage.

New Jersey's second attempt on the power play, while they didn't score, had much more offensive zone time an opportunities, including Nico Hischier inclose on Blackwood, who sprawled out to make saves in quick succession.

• The Devils caught a break, preventing the Sharks from going up 2-0 with 7:15 to play in the second when Fabian Zetterlund pushed Allen's pad into the Devils net, a play that initially ruled a goal. Upon review, one that didn't take more than a quick second, the referees called back the goal for interference.

“Yeah, if that counted, there’d be an issue,” Allen said after the game.

• Three first-overall picks were featured in Sunday's game. The eldest is 25-year-old Nico Hischier (2017), followed by Jack Hughes (2019) and San Jose's Macklin Celebrini, who is the most recent first-overall pick from this past year's draft.

• The Sharks' lineup includes several former members of the New Jersey Devils, beginning with starting goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood. Fabian Zetterlund and Tyler Toffoli also played for the Sharks, while goaltender Vitek Vanecek served as Blackwood's backup.