Devils Fall Short in Seattle | GAME STORY

SEATTLE, WA - The New Jersey Devils fell one win shy of sweeping their Western Conference road trip.

After victories in Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver, the Devils dropped their game to the Seattle Kraken, 4-2, on Sunday afternoon.

"Great start (to the road trip)," Brenden Dillon said. "Absolutely, beyond frustrating way to finish, because we just beat ourselves. The game is right there, we talked about it in the second. Be content playing a 1-1 hockey game and two plays completely is our undoing."

Those two plays came early in the third period, where the Kraken scored two goals in 18 seconds.

Dougie Hamilton opened the scoring early in the first period with a power-play goal, giving New Jersey the early edge. Seattle answered in the second when Ryker Evans evened the score with a long-range shot that was deflected by Johnathan Kovacevic and dribbled in behind Jacob Markstrom. The third period was the Devils' undoing, when the Kraken struck twice in quick succession early in the third period, goals separated by 18 seconds, to take the lead.

Matty Beniers put Seattle up 2-1, cutting across the slot and sending a backhand shot over Markstrom’s glove. Seconds later, Berkley Catton gave Seattle a two-goal lead with the puck hitting his body, falling into the open net.

"We got beat on our 1-on-1 battles," Dillon said. "That's what we talk about, we harp on it every day and you just can't let that happen."

"We don’t score enough, or generate enough 5-on-5 to be able to absorb some of the way we defended on the first two goals," head coach Sheldon Keefe said. "The third one, was a little bit unlucky. Their first two, just can’t defend like that to allow pucks to get at our net and people to get at our net. That’s on us.”

Jack Hughes pulled the Devils within one with a power-play goal, but the Devils’ late push came up just short. Jordan Eberle put the Kraken up 4-2 with an empty net goal.

Here are some observations from the game:

• New Jersey was down to five defensemen late in the second period and through the third after Brett Pesce was hit into the boards and, in the collision, received a cut to the face. Pesce lay on the ice as a team trainer ran across the ice, but he was able to get up on his own and skate off, with a noticeable stream of blood coming off his face.

Pesce returned mid-way through the third period.

• New Jersey went 3-1-0 on their four-game road trip out west. The trip completes the final four-game trip of the season.

"We played a fine game again here today but we have lost the luxury or the ability to be content with anything that’s happened in the past, we’ve got to stay in the present and not leave any points on the table," Keefe said. "That’s to me what we did here today, so that’s dissapointing. As much as we had good results and feel good about the trip, we’ve got to go back home and we’ve got to play better. We’ve got to build on our game and get to another level. We need to get more consistent offense.”

• Dougie has stretched his point-streak to eight straight appearances. His power play goal against the Kraken was his latest point, to bring his totals up to a goal and nine assists over the stretch. Technically, because Hamilton did not play against the Minnesota Wild, his point streak is counted as only seven games, since the eighth, in Pittsburgh on Jan. 8, was interrupted by sitting out against the Winnipeg Jets on Jan. 11.

The power play goal against the Kraken was also the 50th of Hamilton's career. Hamilton picked up a second power-play point, an assist, on Jack Hughes's third period goal.

• One of the talking points from Sheldon Keefe over the last couple of weeks, as the Devils' game started to trend in the right direction, was getting the power play to start trending in the same direction, and they can start feeling really good about their game. There was a subtle shift on the first unit man-advantage that is starting to pay dividends. Connor Brown has been added to the unit with Dougie Hamilton, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, and Jack Hughes.

As a unit, over the last two games, they have scored three goals. A positive shift in momentum and a positive shift in productivity for the power play. Hischier and Brown scored power play goals in the previous two games, while Hamilton added the opening marker on Sunday afternoon.

Jack Hughes added a second power play goal against the Kraken.

"I can see the confidence growing with the group,” Keefe said. “Obviously, we’ve been in different stages with it. We’ve gone from sticking with it, to then getting a little frustrated with it and splitting it up and then holding people accountable and playing the second unit first and moving all sorts of things around. Coming out on this trip, we committed to getting back to as close a look we’ve had as last season, obviously (Stefan) Noesen is out, but (Connor) Brown has filled that role for us. Particularly hounding the puck and winning it back for us. And then we’ve just got to trust that those guys can go out and do the job. And I thought they did today.”

• Good teams stand up for one another. And that's exactly what Dawson Mercer did in the first period, which took him out of the game for a solid stretch.

After Ondrej Palat was hit near the blueline and into the boards by defensemen Ryan Lindgren, it took no time for his teammate to respond, with Mercer immediately dropping the gloves with the 6-foot, 194-pound Lindgren.