Banged-up Sens sink Devils
NEWARK, NJ -- For the second time in less than a week, the Ottawa Senators skated out of the Prudential Center with two crucial road points after beating the New Jersey Devils 2-1 Tuesday night.
Missing three of their top forwards -- the injured Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman, and Bobby Ryan -- the undermanned Senators (32-20-6) received a stellar goaltending performance from Craig Anderson, and goals from Kyle Turris and Erik Karlsson, to win for the fifth time in their last seven games, including last Thursday's 3-0 victory in New Jersey.
The loss was the second straight for the Devils (25-25-10), who received a power-play goal from Travis Zajac and 21 saves from Cory Schneider. It marked the first time since Jan. 24-26 that the Devils lost consecutive games.
Anderson was the story in the scoreless first period, making a pair of highlight-reel saves on Grade A scoring chances from in-close for New Jersey's Miles Wood and Adam Henrique.
After Anderson and Schneider each stopped 10 shots in the opening period, the Senators needed just 59 seconds to score the game's first goal early in the second period. Turris buried his 20th goal from beneath the right circle, the third time he reached the 20-goal plateau in his career.
Thanks to big-time saves by Anderson on New Jersey's Wood and Michael Cammalleri, and Schneider on Ottawa's Jean-Gabriel Pageau, neither team scored again until the third period when the Senators and Devils swapped power play goals early in the period.
Karlsson zipped a right-wing shot past Schneider for his tenth goal, extending his point streak to six consecutive games, at 4:11 to make it 2-0 Ottawa. Zajac responded two minutes later with his 12th goal at 6:37.
Anderson, who finished with 29 saves, allowed just seven goals in four starts since returning to the Senators after a two-month absence to be with his wife who is battling cancer.
New Jersey, which has now lost four of its last six games, played without rookie Pavel Zacha for the final half of Tuesday's game. Zacha was hurt on a collision with Ottawa's Derick Brassard in the second period, went to the dressing room, and never returned to the contest.
NOTES: Devils D Kyle Quincey was activated off injured reserve and played for the first time in seven games after being sidelined with an upper-body injury. ... Veteran LW Michael Cammalleri, who was a healthy scratch the previous two games, also returned to the Devils lineup. ... The Devils scratched D John Moore, D Seth Helgeson and RW Beau Bennett. ... The Senators were without their top two goal scorers, RW Mark Stone (neck), who has 22 goals, and LW Mike Hoffman (groin), who has scored 19. ... Ottawa RW Bobby Ryan was placed on injured reserve Tuesday with a broken finger. ... D Fredrik Claesson was scratched by the Senators.