NEWARK, N.J. _ Saturday afternoon against the Arizona Coyotes marked the returns of Nico Hischier, Kyle Palmieri, Miles Wood, Sami Vatanen and Mirco Mueller. Finally, the Devils looked like an NHL team again instead of an American Hockey League team.
The additions of all of those lineup regulars should have been a boon to the power play but instead, the game was knotted in the first period and remained tight through regulation. New Jersey logged 9:36 of man-advantage time and came up empty.
But the Devils were able to overcome their power-play woes to defeat the Coyotes, 2-1, in a shootout at Prudential Center, just their third of the season.
"I really liked our overall team game in general," Devils' coach John Hynes said. "I thought both sets of special teams played well. The power play didn't score but they had some really good looks and brought momentum to our team, momentum to the building and 5-on-5, I thought it was a pretty strong game."
Blake Coleman and Pavel Zacha scored in the shootout, with Zacha ending it by going five-hole on goalie Darcy Kuemper in the seventh round. Drew Stafford scored his second goal in as many games and Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 23 of 24 shots, as well as six of seven in the shootout to deny Arizona the second point.
"He looks good in the shootouts, he's a big kid and he's so athletic," Hynes said. "You have to make a great move or a great shot to beat him."
The Coyotes certainly gave the Devils plenty of chances to break a 1-1 tie, taking five penalties for 10 minutes in the second and third periods. All of the aforementioned players, with the exception of Mueller, did help generate on the power play and there's no question it was far more productive than it has been since the lineup was hit with a rash of injuries.
Arizona took four penalties in the second period alone, giving the Devils ample opportunities to break a 1-1 tie. But with Kuemper leading the way, the league's second-best penalty kill did their job effectively.
Arizona captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson beat Blackwood clean on a point shot through traffic just 2:31 into play. Stafford tied the game late in the period with his second goal in as many games.
There was little flow to the game in the second period with five penalties taken between the two teams but the Devils did drive the play the way they should with the man-advantage. New Jersey threw seven shots on net in the first two power plays. Kenny Agostino had a good chance in close on the second power play and Kuemper came up big on the third.
Michael McLeod looked as though he would break the tie late in the period when Agostino found him cutting through the slot but Kuemper denied him from point-blank range. The Devils' 2016 first-round pick continues to search for his first NHL goal.
A delay of game penalty late in the third period gave the New Jersey a fifth power play. Hischier, Coleman and Palmieri all had scoring chances but no one cracked Kuemper. In overtime, it was the Coyotes who couldn't crack Blackwood on the power play and the two teams engaged in a shootout for the second time this season.
