GAME RECAP: Devils 5, Oilers 3

NEWARK, NJ – Running with the Devils proved difficult in the first of back-to-back contests this weekend.

Forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored twice, while centre Curtis Lazar notched his first goal with the club late in regulation, but the Edmonton Oilers fell to their second straight defeat on Saturday afternoon in a 5-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center.

After falling behind to goals from Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt, Nugent-Hopkins made it 2-1 through 40 minutes before former Oilers winger Connor Brown haunted his former team by scoring shorthanded at 9:23 of the third period to restore their two-goal lead, which the hosts never relinquished again.

The Oilers conceded a shorthanded goal for the second straight game and finished 0-for-3 on the power play.

Hughes notched his second goal of the game 1:17 later, and Nugent-Hopkins made it 4-2 with Edmonton's playing six-on-five, but an empty-netter for Dawson Mercer got the goal right back before Curtis Lazar added a late consolation for his first tally in Blue & Orange with 1.2 seconds left in regulation.

"I think everybody can be simpler," said Connor McDavid, who recorded two assists. "Everybody can do things a little bit easier and more predictable for each other; get more pucks to the net and get more bodies to the net. They're all clichés because they work, so it's a nice way to get ourselves out of it, and that'll be the focus moving forward. We'll get back to our game here."

Hughes finished with two goals and an assist for the Devils, who earned their fourth straight victory at the expense of the Oilers, who lost their second game in a row as part of their current five-game road trip.

The Oilers will continue their road trip on Sunday afternoon against the Detroit Red Wings.

"I think that's a good thing," McDavid said of the back-to-back. "You don't like sitting on losses, so it'll be nice just to get to Detroit and get going again."

FIRST PERIOD

There was no scoring through the first period in Newark, though there were plenty of good looks from the Oilers in those opening 20 minutes that just needed someone in Blue & Orange to take the shot instead of trying to make the extra pass.

The Oilers outshot the Devils 9-4 in the opening frame, including the first seven in their favour, but none of those shots came on their opening power play when Evan Bouchard was high-sticked by Dawson Mercer just 1:34 into the contest in a composed early kill from New Jersey.

On a three-on-two rush at even strength soon after, defenceman Darnell Nurse had the puck in between the circles with an opening to shoot before trying to feed it to Vasily Podkolzin on the left side, though the Russian's lefthandedness made it a challenging play as the chance escaped the Oilers.

When the Devils were on their first power play past the midway mark of the frame, the Oilers looked more likely to score with two separate odd-man rushes that didn't result in any scoring opportunities. Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid got out on the kill later in the penalty, getting loose on a two-on-one that saw the German get tracked down by the back-pressuring Devils as he tried to slide a pass to McDavid that was stopped by the sliding Dougie Hamilton.

At the end of the Devils' power play, Andrew Mangiapane suffered a similar fate when his attempted feed to Nugent-Hopkins was taken away,

SECOND PERIOD

The Devils were the first to crack the scoresheet at 'the Rock' when centre Jack Hughes blazed through the neutral zone with speed and split defencemen Brett Kulak and Ty Emberson before wristing his effort far side on Calvin Pickard to make it 1-0 for the hosts at 11:53 of the middle frame.

Pickard, making his second start of the season, bailed out Trent Frederic when the forward bobbled the puck as the last man back, needing the shot stopper to make an important intervention to keep it a one-goal game before he stopped Andrej Palat in close off a nice feed from below the goal line from Jack Hughes later in the period.

The Oilers' netminder didn't get any help from his teammates in the final five minutes of the period when defenceman Mattias Ekholm drove centre Nico Hischier into him on a partial breakaway, resulting in a holding penalty and a quick dispatch from the Devils' power play off the faceoff for a two-goal lead.

Hischier won the ensuing faceoff to Hughes, who redirected it into open space on the right side for Jesper Bratt to make a backhand move on Pickard into a wide-open net for the 2-0 advantage just four seconds into Ekholm's minor penalty.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was able to halve the New Jersey lead prior to the intermission just 2:14 after the Devils made it 2-0, sliding to the back door unmarked as Connor McDavid drew the attention of three Devils skaters before the Oilers captain sifted the perfect pass to him for a top-shelf finish.

It was Nugent-Hopkins' third goal of the season, giving him goals in back-to-back games after scoring on Thursday night against the Islanders.

Forward Jack Roslovic picked up the secondary assist for his first point in an Oilers uniform, playing in his third game with the Blue & Orange.

THIRD PERIOD

Old friend turned foe.

Now a member of the Devils, former Oilers winger Connor Brown condemned his old team to their second straight game with a shorthanded goal against when the puck was knocked down for a breakaway that he made no mistake with by burying it over the glove of Pickard at 9:23 of the third period.

"That's a good question," McDavid said about conceding SHGs in back-to-back games. "I think our whole team's just a little bit out of sync. Not a lot of flow to our game. Just not connected enough, or even on the power play and five-on-five in five."

The Oilers had a chance to generate momentum through their power play, but for the second straight game, a crucial man advantage wound up swinging the game in the other direction after Bo Horvat scored the equalizer for the Islanders while shorthanded two nights ago.

"That's two games now where we had a chance on the power play to really make a difference," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "The Islanders game, we're up 2-1, score late in the second period, and going into third with a 3-1 lead would have been huge. Unfortunately, they score, and tonight was a very similar situation. We're down 2-1, and in the third period, we have an opportunity to make it 2-2, but we give up a shorthanded goal, and then it's 3-1. It's really difficult to get out of that."

Just under two minutes later, a turnover by the Oilers in their own zone left Jack Hughes wide open to accept a pass behind the defence from Jesper Bratt before dangling Pickard and pulling the puck back onto his forehand to easily put home his second goal of the game to increase the lead to 4-1.

Edmonton pulled Pickard for the extra attacker with plenty of time remaining as they attempted to erase a three-goal deficit, with Nugent-Hopkins converting his second goal of the contest with 3:30 remaining to make it 4-2 by tapping in McDavid's terrific redirected pass. Darnell Nurse recorded the second helper.

An empty-netter for Dawson Mercer got the goal right back for the Devils, and a late consolation for former New Jersey forward Curtis Lazar with 1.2 seconds left in regulation marked his first goal as a member of the Oilers before time expired on their second straight loss in a 5-3 final.

McDavid said the lack of offensive finish from the Oilers over their last few games is putting more pressure on them to make fewer mistakes, so there's a determination from the group to rediscover their scoring touch that will help the rest of their game.

"When you're scoring goals and you're firing on all cylinders, you can afford a mistake here and there," he said. "And obviously, we can't afford many mistakes right now with the way we're going offensively. So we got to find a way to clean up the mistakes first and get ourselves going offensively."

Coach Knoblauch agreed with the captain's assessment.

"It's probably putting a little bit more pressure on guys feeling like they got to do a little extra, but it's just felt a bit disconnected and a little bit slower."