Devils Fall in OT to Flyers | GAME STORY

NEWARK, NJ - Owen Tippett scored in overtime to give the Philadelphia Flyers a 3-2 victory Tuesday night at Prudential Center.

McLeod opened the scoring and Jesper Bratt scored on the Devils’ lone power-play chance.

Philadelphia’s Ryan Poehling had two goals entering the game. And he had four goals after the game, scoring both tallies for the Flyers.

The Devils earned a point, which will help. But giving two to Philadelphia widens the gap in the Metro Division. Philly moves to 39 points on the year, second in the division, while the Devils now have 34, fifth in the division but still out of a Wild Card position.

"It's unfortunate because there were a bunch of positives," Nathan Bastian said. "It doesn't really matter. At the end of the day those are games you have to find a way to squeak out some wins. Did we play pretty well? Yeah, but not good enough though."

Here are some observations from the game:

• McLeod scored his second goal in as many games. And he’s continued to dominate the Flyers in his career. He now has five goals and 12 points in 18 career games against Philadelphia, his best numbers against any team in the NHL.

• McLeod gets credit on the finish. But the goal was the result of a beautiful play by his linemate and bestie Nathan Bastian. Bastian carried the puck from the corner, pulled it around the sprawling body of Flyers defenseman Egor Zamula and through the crease to the stick of McLeod, who was waiting unchecked at the opposite side of the crease. From there, it was an easy slam dunk. Bastian was a pest for the Flyers to deal with. He drew a lot of their ire and was the cause of a few skirmishes after the whistle.

"I was just thinking get it to the net and I knew Mikey was going to drift off to the back," Bastian said. "It was more putting it in an area more than anything."

• Last thing on McLeod, he went 16-2 in the face-off circle. Having gone 12-0 against Anaheim, McLeod has won 28 of his last 30 faceoffs. 

• The Devils have the NHL’s No. 1-ranked power play. It’s a testament to how well they executed at the beginning of the season because they entered the Flyers’ game having gone just 1 for the last 18. What’s worse, the Flyers had only surrendered three power-play goals in their last 15 games (48-for-51). So, it seemed this was not the time for the Devils to break their funk. Or was it the perfect time?

Jesper Bratt tallied on the man-advantage after crashing the net and finding a Nico Hischier rebound. New Jersey got a much needed power-play goal to regain the lead and it came just 94 seconds after the Flyers had tied it.

• Goalie Vitek Vanecek played his best game of the season in a 2-1 against Boston in his previous outing. He followed that up with another strong showing against the Flyers. His save on Owen Tippett’s breakaway late in the third period was a literally game saver and allowed New Jersey to get this game to overtime.

"He gave us a real solid chance to win the hockey game," Ruff said. "A couple mistakes he covered up on."

"I was trying to help my team win the game," Vanecek said. 

• Devils captain Nico Hischier played in his 400^th career game. In 400th game, Hischier picked up his 301st career point.