Travis Zajac keeps adding to his Devils hockey legacy. Kyle Palmieri keeps adding to his Boston-busting mystique.
Neither, however, could help New Jersey end its shootout woes.
Zajac scored his 200th career goal in the second quarter of his team's 5-4 loss to the Bruins Tuesday at TD Garden. Palmieri chipped in with his fifth goal of the season series, which the Devils now lead 4-0-2 — with those two shootout losses dropping their record in that situation to 0-4.
Coach Lindy Ruff's team completed its six-game road trip at 3-2-1 and now gets its first two-day break since the early-February COVID-19 shutdown. It will also be the last spot in their schedule with multiple days off — pandemic permitting, of course — until the end of the season.
“The great part about it is that we can give them a day of rest, and then we can also get a great day of practice in, which, there haven’t been many," Ruff said before Tuesday's game.
"For our club, as young as it is, to get a good 45 minutes in to practice things that we think can make us better offensively, and run through those reps with all four lines, is important. It’s something that we haven’t been able to do a lot of, but we’re looking forward to having that day.”
The Devils return to action Friday against the Capitals at Prudential Center. The final two meetings with Boston are slated for May 3-4.
Two-hundred for Travis
Zajac reached his milestone at the 3:45 of the second period, putting the Devils ahead 3-1 and helping them match the largest margin by either team in the season series up to that point. They also held a 2-0 lead in their 3-2 victory on Feb. 18.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to play a long time, and with some good players who’ve made me look good,” a self-effacing Zajac told the MSG-Plus studio crew during the second intermission break. “It was nice to get that one tonight.”
The Devils’ 2004 first-round draft pick now needs two goals to tie Bobby Holik for No. 3 on the franchise’s all-time goal-scoring list behing Patrik Elias (408) and John MacLean (347).
Away we go
The first period offered a departure from the teams’ first five meetings, in which the average score was 2-1 New Jersey.
That was the total after 20 minutes, with Miles Wood scoring his team-high 11th goal just 1:28 into the game.
Boston began buzzing four minutes later, tying it on a Nick Ritchie goal and threatening to take the lead, only to have a Patrice Bergeron shot ring off the iron.
“The first period was really fast, it was back and forth, and same with the second,” Zajac said. “We’re working on our transition, and we got some breaks off that.”
Such was the case when Michael McLeod completed an end-to-end goal off passes from Ryan Murray and Jesper Boqvist, putting the Devils ahead 2-1 with 10:26 left in the first.
Ritchie’s goal ended a 127-minute, one-second Bruins scoring drought against New Jersey. Blackwood’s 40-save shutout on Sunday followed up Scott Wedgewood’s carbon-copy outing on March 7.
