Palmieri’s OT Goal Lifts Red-Hot Devils Past Canucks, 4-3

Sergey Kalinin of the Devils celebrates with his teammates after scoring his first goal of his NHL career on Sunday night against the Canucks. Photo Credit: Adam Hunger/Getty Images

EAST, HANOVER, NJ – In what is supposed to be a season that the Devils are in a ‘rebuilding’ phase, the offense is finding it’s stride and scoring timely goals to win hockey games. This time, Kyle Palmieri stepped up when he fired a snapshot into the open net off a nice feed from Mike Cammalleri with 1:29 left in the extra frame.

New Jersey (8-5-1) has won two in a row and eight of their last ten. The special teams stepped up in a huge way as Adam Henrique scored the first goal for New Jersey after a nice centering feed from Travis Zajac on a shorthanded tally. Not only did the Devils score on the penalty kill, but they held Vancouver (6-4-1) off the board in six power-play tries en route to the 4-3 win on Sunday afternoon at the Prudential Center.

“Specialty teams can win you games and we were fortunate to get that one in overtime,” Devils goalie Keith Kinkaid told NHL.com. “It’s a good feeling. Our penalty kill is strong, we’re blocking shots and getting it done. We had to keep them in check and probably gave them a few too many power plays, but we stayed with it.”

Palmieri’s game-winner was his fifth goal of the season. New Jersey’s crisp passing forced Vancouver goaltender Ryan Miller to be out of position on the play. The decisive penalty was called on Canucks defenseman Hamhuis when he was whistled for interference in the Devil’s offensive zone.

“[Cammalleri] made a great play,” Palmieri said. “We had a couple plays that didn’t work and frustration might have been settling in, but the goal was kind of a broken little forecheck where the puck went to [Cammalleri]. The Canucks know he’s a shooter, and when he pumped he froze everybody, so all I had to do was put it in the empty net.”

The Devils usually rely on gritty, hard work in front of the net to get goals on the board. However, this game had it’s fair share of one-timers off nice passes and dekes past Miller to get the Devils scoring going.

At the 16:32 mark of the first period, Cammalleri gave the Devils a 2-1 lead when he took a pass from Lee Stempniak as he was streaking down the ice. Cammalleri faked a forehand shot before switching to his backhand, and putting the puck into the open net.

Although Adam Henrique cannot quite figure it out, the forward actually enjoys playing short-handed. The veteran center tied the game at 1-1 when the Devils were a man down before New Jersey scored two more times to take a 3-1 lead midway through the second period.

“I don’t know if there’s something behind it or not but I enjoy playing shorthanded,” Henrique said. “I’m not always thinking about the offensive side of it, but just getting the kill first and going from there.”

Making only his third appearance of the season, Kinkaid had a solid outing and was a big reason that the Devils held the Canucks scoreless on the man advantage. The most important kill came midway through the third period when Kinkaid and his teammates warded off a five minute interference penalty called on defenseman Adam Larsson.

Kinkaid’s most impressive save came toward the end of the second period. On a 4 on 3 advantage, Vancouver’s Radim Vrbata had the puck all alone in front. He made a nice move to get toward the right side of the cage, but was stopped on a diving glove save from Kinkaid.

“It wasn’t the prettiest [win] and we wanted to key in on winning the special-teams battle,” Palmieri said. “I think it came through for us in the end. It was a game that went back and forth and there were lots of penalties but our penalty kill did a great job and [Kinkaid] stepped up big when he needed him and that was a key for us.”

Rookie Sergey Kalinin scored his first NHL goal at the 10:31 mark of the second period to give New Jersey a 3-1 advantage. He fired a wrister from the right slot that Miller did not appear to see clearly until he looked at the biscuit behind him in the cage.

It appeared as if the game would be tied at two when Vancouver’s Jake Virtanen scored on a wrap around try toward the end of the first period. However, Devils head-coach John Hynes challenged the play, claiming that Alexandre Burrows interfered with Kinkaid. Hynes won the challenge and the goal was waived off.

Kinkaid gave up goals to Alexander Edler and Sven Baertschi as Vancouver tied the game at three apiece in the second period. The Devils were able to fight off their opposition’s momentum. Neither team scored in the third period before Palmieri got his chance in overtime.

The Devils will hope to make it a three-game sweep in this early season homestand. Standing in their way is the St. Louis Blues (10-3-1), who they will attempt to defeat on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Prudential Center.