GLENDALE, Ariz. _ Just when it looked like the Devils were starting to figure things out their rookie goalie went down with a lower-body injury.
The Devils didn't let it derail them against the Arizona Coyotes, staying in it right until the end and winning, 3-2, in a shootout. But losing a rising goalie is no doubt a blow.
In the second game of a four-game road swing, New Jersey was trying to bounce back from a tough loss in Dallas and was confident in its ability to do that against a bottom-dwelling Pacific Division team with its young stud goalie, Mackenzie Blackwood, in net.
Blackwood's status was deemed "questionable" to return but Kinkaid played the rest of the way, stopping 14 of 16 shots and shutting down the Coyotes in a shootout.
Kyle Palmieri and Drew Stafford scored for New Jersey in the shootout, giving the Devils their first shootout win of the season.
New Jersey was up 1-0 just 1:05 into play after a successful review on a Nico Hischier goal. Hischier finished off a feed from Palmieri but Clayton Keller dislodged the net. The review determined the puck entered the goal legally and it was a good goal.
Everything was going right for the Devils until it came to a screeching halt in the first period.
Still carrying that 1-0 lead, Blackwood left the game with an injury. A few minutes later, Pavel Zacha's pass from below the New Jersey goal line was picked off by Conor Garland and Kinkaid couldn't make a play. Garland evened the score at 1-1 at the 16:44 mark.
Blake Coleman appeared to take a 2-1 New Jersey lead at 6:10 of the second period but the referee blew the play dead when he lost sight of the puck. The situation room in Toronto said the call on the ice stood and Coleman's initial shot did not enter the net.
Instead, it was Christian Fischer who scored that tie-breaking goal, finishing a 2-on-1 rush at 9:05 in the second to give the Coyotes a 2-1 lead.
Coleman did finally get that goal, netting the equalizer with just under four minutes left in the second period. Travis Zajac slid a feed through the slot to a waiting Coleman, who went five-hole on Darcy Kuemper.
The Devils were the aggressors in the third period and controlled most of the play throughout until Brian Boyle took a high-sticking double-minor, giving Arizona a four-minute power play. The NHL's third-best penalty kill unit killed it off and Hischier nearly had the go-ahead goal with a little more than seven minutes left in regulation but Kuemper made the stop.
The Devils went 5 for 5 on the penalty kill but they failed to crack the league's best penalty kill unit, going 0 for 3 on the power play.
