Devils Lose Lead in 2nd, Game to Bruins | GAME STORY

BOSTON, MA - What started out so well, turned on a dime for the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night.

Nico Hischier opened the scoring with a power play goal in the first period and Luke Hughes would double the Devils lead just 1:11 into the second period before the rails seemingly fell off. New Jersey conceded four straight goals to Boston, starting with Jake DeBrusk's goal at 5:35 of the second period. Suddenly behind, and the Bruins building their lead, the Devils struggled to sway any momentum back in their favor in the second period.

David Pastrnak added two goals and Kevin Shattenkirk scored the fourth Bruins goal in the second period, building a Boston lead the Devils could not surmount.

"Frustrated for sure," Nico Hischier said post-game, "Against a team like that, we can’t afford that. They made us pay - big time.”

"I thought in the 2nd we lost a lot of battles," Erik Haula shared, "they were hungrier on the forcheck, they were on our D, we weren't breaking the puck out and we got hemmed and that way they got some opportunities and they capitalized."

The Bruins scored four goals on 11 shots in the 2nd period.

After giving up the four goals, the Devils put together an 18-shot 3rd period in an attempt to fight their way back into this one, but the damage had already been done.

"This should not happen," Hischier added, "This cannot happen and I think in the 2nd period a lot came down to winning our battles."

The Devils have been here before on the second half of a back-to-back, and are now 1-6-1 this season on the second half of back-to-backs.

Shattenkirk added his second of the game, a power play goal at 16:47 of the third, for a 5-2 final score in favor of the home team.

Here are some observations from the game:

• For just the 10th time this season the Devils opened the scoring of a game. Nico Hischier's goal came just five seconds into Kevin Shattenkirk's first period penalty. 

• The Bruins put on a ton of pressure with just over five minutes to go in the first period, trailing by a goal. The Bruins, looking for the equalizing goal, thwarted the Devils attempt, time and time again, to clear the zone and be able to make a change in personnel. With the Bruins maintaining possession, they were able to make changes on the fly as they peppered Vanecek with shots. It was all Vitek for the Devils in those anxious moments, keeping the scoreline in New Jersey's favor and also making the big saves with tired defenders in front of him.

Jonas Siegenthaler and Simon Nemec, in particular, had an extensive, likely exhaustive shift, with their shifts lasting 2:00 and 2:12 respectively.

• Luke Hughes extended his goal streak to three straight games after his seemingly harmless shot on Linus Ullmark went up and over the Bruins netminder's shoulder less than two minutes into the second period. Luke, looking dismayed that the shot even got by Ullmark, had just completely another end-to-end shift, albeit slightly different than his overtime winner two games ago. 

Behind his own net, Hughes was sandwiched by a hit between David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha, before popping up to lead a 1-on-3 rush up the ice before taking his shot.

• For the second time this season the Devils gave up four goals in a single period to their opponent. The last time was against the Edmonton Oilers in a 6-3 loss.

• Timo Meier played his 500th NHL game tonight but did not come out to play for the third period. Lindy Ruff did not have an update on Meier's status post-game but did say he will still need to be evaluated.