NEWARK, N.J. _ The last time the Devils and St. Louis Blues met, the former turned in a performance they described as "embarrassing" and "unacceptable." That was back in February, a few weeks before the trade deadline.
Since then, the Devils have played hard every night despite the obvious talent gap. They continued to do that Saturday night at Prudential Center, taking the playoff-bound Blues into overtime.
With just 2.8 seconds left in overtime and the shootout looming, Vince Dunn took the puck from his own blue line, skated into the zone and made an unbelievable move to fool the Devils' defense and snap one past Cory Schneider to give the Blues a 3-2 win.
"I don't know what happened there, I need to watch the video, but I might have gotten caught a little flat-footed just not anticipating he was going to be able to carry it all the way in and get in like that," Schneider said. "He just sort of quick-shotted me through the legs. A tough play all around to have that happen with two seconds left."
There was nothing unacceptable about this loss.
"That's more of how we want to play," coach John Hynes said. "The more we play like that the more you can have confidence in your game and it's going to lead to better results."
Drew Stafford and Joey Anderson scored for the Devils and Schneider made 24 saves on 27 shots on goal, including one on a shot by Jaden Schwartz after he had turned the puck over to Schwartz behind the net in the second period. Schneider also got some help in the form of Kevin Rooney, who was able to get a stick on Schwartz's shot at an open net.
"I think I owe him a couple beers for that one," Schneider joked.
St. Louis goalie Jake Allen played well, stopping 25 of 27 shots and denying New Jersey of the game-winner in the third period.
An eventful second period had the Devils and Blues knotted at 2 to start the third. Allen denied multiple chances by the fourth line with just over 5:00 left. First, it was Stafford on the wraparound, then Rooney and Stefan Noesen trying to clean up the rebounds, but the puck never broke through.
"It was right there," Rooney said. "We were hard on the puck, we got it low to high and then Staff kind of gets behind the net and made a good play. I've just got to work on finding those rebounds and getting them upstairs."
Stafford started the scoring for New Jersey in the second period with his third goal in five games, finishing off a centering feed from Pavel Zacha on the power play to tie the game at the 4:57 mark.
Late in the second, onetime Devil Patrick Maroon did what he does best and screened Schneider, effectively taking his eyes away on a delayed penalty. Tyler Bozak ripped a wrister through traffic and past Schneider for his 400th point. But the Devils answered right away.
Anderson redirected a point shot past Allen at the 16:52 mark, just 54 seconds after Bozak's goal, tying the game once again.
A long shift in the Devils' own zone in the first period led to Robert Thomas' score at 15:09. With Maroon tying up Will Butcher in the crease, Thomas had plenty of time and space to wrap around the net and go five-hole on Schneider.
"Their depth lines came through and had some good chances and zone time," Schneider said. "Their defensemen are a big part of their offense. Overall, I thought we did a pretty good job keeping it at bay and keeping it a tight game."
This wasn't the same Devils' team that faced the Blues less than two months ago, at least not in terms of the effort and intensity level they played with. The season might be winding down but New Jersey's fight is going strong.
