Up and Down Season Continues for Devils in Rare OT Loss to Flyers 4-3

Damon Severson of the Devils attempts to play a puck as he is watched by Scott Laughton of the Flyers. Photo Credit: Elsa/Getty Images

EAST HANOVER, NJ – It has been a strange season for the New Jersey Devils thus far, to say the least. It seems like one week they are beating elite teams like the Canadiens and Rangers, and the next losing home game to the Columbus Blue Jackets. One thing that is a constant this season is excitement; something that has been missing from this team over the past few years.

The Devils (13-10-3) brought a ton of that on Friday night in Newark against the Philadelphia Flyers (11-10-5), but unfortunately fell short in overtime 4-3, when normally reliable goaltender Corey Schneider let a shot by Matt Read trickle through him and sneak into the back of the cage.

It was only the third time the Devils have lost in extra time and they did not even get a shot on goal in overtime in an attempt to earn themselves a different fate.

The Good – It was the not the cleanest or most complete game for New Jersey, but they were able to scratch out a point, even though they were outshot almost every period. Stefan Matteau scored his first goal of the season on an unlikely play. He fired in a sharp angle shot that somehow found it way past Flyer’s goaltender Michal Neuvirth to make the game 1-0 in the first period.

With the Devils trailing 3-2, they were awarded a penalty when Pierre-Edouard Bellemare tripped Jacob Josefson with just over two minutes left in the third period. Coach John Hynes elected to pull Schneider to give his squad a 6 on 4 advantage. The tactic worked as Mike Cammalleri scored off his own rebound, in a scramble, with just a minute remaining to even things up.

“I thought this was a little bit of a test of mental toughness and I have a lot of respect for our group,” Devils coach John Hynes told NHL.com. “We didn’t have our best game for 40 minutes, but we found a way to claw back in and stay in it. We found a way to get a point.”

The Bad – One can not blame Schneider for the Devils shortcoming effort, but he would be the first to admit that he could have done some things differently on some of the Flyer’s scores.

He gave up a goal per period, including the extra frame. The one he would probably want back is when he left a big juicy rebound for Bellemare to fire into the open net.

“I don’t like giving up four goals and I could have had a better game,” Schneider said. “It’s been awhile since I’ve given up three or four. I felt I could have given my team a better chance to win.”

The Devils penalty kill, which ranked 4th coming into the contest, allowed two power-play goals on Friday. The first was to Wayne Simmonds which tied the score at one apiece and the second was to Claude Giroux in the middle of the second period after Andy Greene flipped the puck over the glass in his defensive end to give the Flyers a two man advantage.

What’s Next – The Devils have now lost four out of their last six games. They have not lost in four on four play in four tries until last night. They will look to rebound when they play host to the Florida Panthers (13-9-4) on Sunday, December 6th at 7 p.m.