OTTAWA, Ontario _ Taylor Hall, looking to convert on a second-period power play, skated through the Senators defense and unleashed his shot through traffic with teammates Nick Lappin and Travis Zajac both near the net. The puck hit off the left post, squirted across the goal mouth and hit the other post as well.
No goal. And, in the end, not enough. Again.
So if one play could sum up the Devils' frustrations, on this night and over the past month, that was it.
The Devils gave as good an effort as they have since their last win, yet had their losing streak extended to five games as the Senators won, 3-1, on Saturday night at Canadian Tire Centre.
The Devils (12-12-6) are 0-3-0 on this road trip, which concludes on Sunday night against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. They are just 3-9-3 since Nov. 17 as they continue to lose ground against the plethora of hot teams in the Metropolitan Division. And they fell to 4-11-4 on the road with just one regulation win.
However, though it's far too deep into the season to accept moral victories, it has to be taken as a positive sign that the Devils managed to reverse some recent negative trends. They had allowed five goals in three of their last four games and had been outscored 19-5 in that stretch. They had allowed at least four goals in 11 of their previous 13 games.
And though they have not outshot an opponent in 14 straight games, against the Senators they did not spend long stretches hemmed in their defensive zone and chasing the puck and possession.
Keith Kinkaid, beaten on two deflections, made 28 saves while Mike Condon stopped 29 shots for the Senators (17-11-3). It wasn't until Zack Smith's empty-netter at 19:04 of the third period that the game was clinched, and that was shortly after Condon slid over to take away what appeared to be Zajac's open look at the net on a rebound.
Kinkaid and Condon were Team USA teammates at the World Championships in May in Russia, with the squad coached by the Devils' John Hynes.
Hynes, still looking for the right combinations to snap the Devils out of their extended rut, altered his defense pairings, breaking up the top pairing of captain Andy Greene and Damon Severson for the first time this season.
Greene was paired with Ben Lovejoy while Severson slotted with Jon Merrill.
"You get into these things and you don't get out of it right away," Hynes said. "You get out of it by starting to play a little bit better and getting to your game. That is the challenge of the segment of the schedule we're in, so we've got to embrace it and play some good hockey."
Hynes said he started to see some improvement in the Devils' game in Thursday's 5-2 loss at St. Louis.
"We did a little bit more," Hynes said. "That was a different game than the previous games."
The Devils, who have had awful issues in the second period this season, fell behind 2-1 at 1:15 of the second on ex-Ranger Derick Brassard's fifth goal of the season.
That left the Devils' goal differential in the second period this season at minus-12.
But after Brassard's goal, the Devils were the stronger team in the middle 20 minutes, outshooting the Senators, 14-9, and getting the more dangerous chances.
The Senators took a 1-0 lead at 3:59 of the first period as Cherry Hill's Bobby Ryan deflected Chris Kelly's shot from the left circle, with the puck then deflecting in off Devils defenseman Kyle Quincey.
But Quincey's new partner for the game, John Moore, tied it at 1 at 10:50 of the first period on a shot from the high slot through Condon's pads. Michael Cammalleri, with the primary assist, notched his 600th career point and snapped a five-game scoreless streak.
