Romanov Shines Despite Loss to Sens in Québec  | GAME STORY

QUÉBEC CITY, QC - Half of the New Jersey Devils took a quick trip north of the border on Sunday morning to play a preseason game against the Ottawa Senators in Québec City, Canada.

From the Videotron Centre, the home of the Québec Remparts of the QMJHL, the Devils dropped their matchup with the Senators 2-0.

The Senators iced close to a full roster, while the Devils had more of a make-shift look, but despite the discrepancy in rosters, the Devils and Senators went toe to toe nearly all the way through the sixty minutes.

It wasn't until less than five minutes to play that the Senators finally broke through on Georgi Romanov in the Devils net for the lone goal of the game. Stephen Halliday scored off of a backward pass from Tim Stutzle to beat Romanov on the 30th shot he faced.

Olle Lycksell hit the empty net to secure the Senators victory.

Despite the loss it was Romanov who put on a show with his 30 saves on 31 shots.

"He competed hard, he kept us in the game, made a ton of great saves," head coach Sheldon Keefe said. "Solid performance from him, he gave the guys hope throughout the game. It would have been a much tougher day here without him. He was full marks.”

Here are some observations from the game:

• There were just a few NHL regulars in the Devils lineup in Québec: Connor Brown, Dawson Mercer, Paul Cotter, Evgenii Dadonov and Cody Glass headlined the group in Canada.

• Martin Brodeur's star status reigns in New Jersey, but it may be supercharged in the province of Québec, where Brodeur is from. So when Brodeur was announced for the ceremonial puck drop at Centre Videotron, the crowd went wild. Along with former Senator and fellow Québécois Patrick Lalime, the two took part in the puck drop, with Dawson Mercer representing the Devils and Thomas Chabot representing the Senators.

Mercer played his entire Junior career in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League and Chabot is a native of Québec City.

• Georgi Romanov, with 16:19 to play in the second period was faced with a big task.

The Devils and Senators were tied at 0 and Ottawa star Tim Stützle was hauled down to the ice by Cale Addison and into Romanov. The refs immediately called for a penalty shot. Stützle skated the puck wide on his penalty attempt, dragging the puck to the middle of the ice before taking a shot on Romanov.

Romanov easily made the save to keep the game tied.

The 25-year-old Russian netminder delivered a superb performance against Ottawa, holding firm through plenty of sustained Senators pressure. In the third period, Romanov frustrated Stützle, breaking up a prime scoring chance with a perfectly timed poke-check that stripped the puck away as the Ottawa forward sat alone at the top of the crease.

• The Devils had four Québec-born players in the lineup against the Senators: Nathan Légaré, Xavier Parent, Mikael Diotte, and Thomas Bordeleau. Légaré had roughly 10 family and friends at the game to cheer him on.

For Bordeleau and Diotte it was an extra meaningful game to be able to play in Québec.

Bordeleau had his parents and grandfather in the crowd.

"It's mostly for them," he said. "The last time I was here was the Pee-Wee Quebec tournament, which was a great experience but it's definitely been a while. It was the old rink next door. Playing here, it was awesome. I'm happy that they got to see me play. My grandpa, it's the first time he's got to see me play in the NHL because San Jose was pretty far and I've never been able to play in Montreal yet."

"It was probably the best game of my life," Diotte said. "Even if it was a loss, it was really special."

For Diotte, this was his first NHL game experience, even though it was just in the preseason. It's something he was looking forward to being a part of and feels like there were plenty of lessons learned, very quickly.

"It teaches you a lot of things," he said. "These guys are all pros for a long time now. So being able to compete against these guys was really exciting. It was a great experience. I’ll take a lot from it.

I had the chance to go with the team to New York and be around and looking at the guys how good they are with the details and everything, that’s a great experience," he added. "I’m just taking a lot of things and putting it in my bag and bringing it for my season. I’m pretty happy about my camp and can’t wait to see what happens.”

• Connor Brown, Paul Cotter and Dawson Mercer wore the As on their jerseys as assistant captains.