NEWARK, N.J. _ The New Jersey Devils were minutes away from their first win of the season but for the second night in a row the culprit was the penalty.
Kyle Palmieri, Nikita Gusev and Damon Severson scored while Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 19 of 22 shots faced in a much-improved performance, but the Devils ultimately fell, 4-3, to the Edmonton Oilers in a shootout on Thursday night at Prudential Center. They're 0-2-2 to begin the season.
The Oilers had an answer for everything.
Former Oiler Taylor Hall connected with Severson at 15:35 to briefly put New Jersey up 3-2. Blake Coleman, one of the Devils' best penalty killers, tripped Connor McDavid with 1:16 left and McDavid made them pay. He converted on the power play to push the game into overtime.
Miles Wood's hooking penalty late in the second period allowed James Neal to tip in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' shot for the game-tying goal at 19:32. This came a few minutes after Gusev whipped a hard wrister from the circle to give New Jersey a 2-1 lead.
Palmieri broke the Devils' scoring drought at 6:14 in the first period when he blocked a shot from Oskar Klefbom, turned and took it all the way down to score on a 2-on-1 rush. He didn't even need Taylor Hall's assistance, he pulled the trigger and beat Koskinen top-shelf at 6:14.
But three minutes later a 4-on-2 ended predictably, with Leon Draisaitl finishing off a feed from Darnell Nurse to tie the game.
Jesper Bratt did the heavy lifting on Gusev's second goal of the season, controlling the puck until he found the former KHL MVP at the top of the circle. He flipped it to Gusev who wired it past Koskinen.
