Recap: Ducks Can't Hold Early Lead, Fall 4-2 to Devils

The Ducks could not hold a first-period two-goal lead, falling 4-2 to the New Jersey Devils tonight at Prudential Center.
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The loss dropped Anaheim to 1-3-0 to start the season, with three consecutive losses now past the halfway point of a five-game eastern road trip.
Jakob Silfverberg scored twice in the first period to give the Ducks the early advantage, his first two goals of the season. Silfverberg is now four goals (143) from tying Bobby Ryan (147) for seventh-most in Ducks history.
Cam Fowler, Isac Lundestrom and Mason McTavish added assists.
Making his first start of the season just 25 miles from his Edison, NJ hometown, Anthony Stolarz stopped 37-of-41 shots in a strong performance, keeping Anaheim in the game all night despite a 41-20 New Jersey edge on the shot counter.
The win was the first of the season for the Devils (1-2-0) and the 783rd in the decorated career of head coach Lindy Ruff, who passed Al Arbour for sole possession of fifth in NHL history.
Ondrej Palat, Nico Hischier, Dougie Hamilton and Dawson Mercer scored for New Jersey. Mackenzie Blackwood earned the win, the 56th of his NHL career, with 18 saves.
Stolarz made the first big save of the night four minutes into the action, flashing the left pad to deny a bid by Hischier.

The Ducks went ahead a few minutes later on Silfverberg's first goal of the season, a well-executed faceoff play deep in the Devils defensive zone. Lundestrom won the draw, pulling it back between his feet for Silfverberg, who fired a knuckling shot through traffic and past Blackwood to give the Ducks the night's first lead.
Lundestrom has points in back-to-back games (0-2=2).
The Ducks struggling penalty kill got a big opportunity to bounce back and protect that lead, and it came through with some help from the hometown netminder. With Anaheim's top penalty-killing forward, Derek Grant, in the box for slashing, Stolarz did his best work on a backdoor opportunity for Miles Wood, sliding to the nearside post to shut down the Devils forward.

And much like they did after Stolarz's first big stop of the night, his teammates took advantage of the sudden momentum with Silfverberg connecting again to double the lead. McTavish set it up, tracking down an errant shot off the end wall, deftly redirecting it to Silfverberg in the low slot, where the veteran winger beat Blackwood to the far side, putting the Ducks up 2-0 early.
With the primary assist, McTavish now has six points (2-4=6) in 13 career NHL games. He co-leads the Ducks in assists through four games this season (three).
Fowler grabbed his first point of the season with the secondary helper.
Stolarz came up with yet another massive save in the dying moments of the first as a Ducks blue line turnover led to a breakaway for Nathan Bastian, who tried to beat the Anaheim netminder through the five-hole. Stolarz calmly answered with a well-positioned save just before the sound of the horn though, sending the Ducks to the locker room with a two-goal lead.

The Ducks twice nearly pushed that edge to three on an early-second period power play but two missed opportunities would shortly prove costly. First, Blackwood made a strong save on Ryan Strome on the doorstep and then moments later McTavish's rebound chance just narrowly missed the net.
This time it would be New Jersey making good on its new life as Palat got to a rebound to Stolarz's left and lifted it home before the netminder could get across.
The goal was Palat's first as a Devil after the longtime Lightning forward and two-time Stanley Cup champion signed a five-year deal with New Jersey this summer as a free agent.
Minutes later it was the former Devil Adam Henrique who came inches from restoring the Ducks two-goal lead, sliding a backhand bid through Blackwood's legs on the breakaway, but the puck rang the left post and stayed out.
Max Comtois and Brendan Smith dropped the gloves with just over six minutes to go in the middle frame, with Comtois responding to a high hit by Smith on Lundestrom in the neutral zone. Comtois was assessed an instigating penalty and a ten-minute misconduct.
Not a minute later, a fortunate bounce for the home side led to the tying goal for Hischier. The former first overall pick was stationed at the side of the net when an carrom off the end wall found his stick. With Stolarz unsure of where it was, Hischier quickly lifted it over the netminder's pad to level the score at two.
The Devils heavily controlled the final minutes of the second with several good scoring chances, but couldn't get anything by Stolarz before the buzzer. Instead they would go ahead in the opening minute of the third with Jesper Bratt feeding a perfect backhand backdoor feed to Hamilton for the tie-breaking goal.
Mercer added the insurance tally with less than eight minutes to play, chipping a bouncing puck over Stolarz's shoulder, off the crossbar and in for the finishing touch in a 4-2 New Jersey victory.
The Ducks continue their five-game road trip Thursday in Boston.