As the New Jersey Devils keep on winning, you have to wonder what might have been if they made some changes a little earlier. With their 3-2 overtime win over the Carolina Hurricanes last night in Newark, the Devils are 10-1-2 in their last 12 games and they're climbing in the East, now up to 13th in the Conference.
Carolina rookie star Jeff Skinner scored two goals in this one, both of which gave the Hurricanes a one goal lead. But Mattias Tedenby didn't want to have anything to do with that. He answered Skinner's first period goal with one of the game-tying variety, and then after Nick Palmieri tied things up late in the third period, it was Tedenby again in overtime who gave the Devils the win.
In Lou We Trust praised the Devils' third period performance.
The third was nearly all New Jersey. Carolina got a few shots in, Jeff Skinner scored incredibly quickly on Volchenkov's third minor of the game (a delay of game call), and that was it for their offense. It had to be, New Jersey wouldn't let them stop defending. The Devils attacked, attacked, and attacked some more. Ward was tested often and made all kinds of stops. The Canes would be all kinds of loose in their own end in terms of not clearing pucks, icing pucks to leave tired players on the ice, getting outworked on shifts by each one of New Jersey's lines, and just fortunate that the Devils didn't get a clear rebound opportunity. It wasn't until there was less than 4 mintues when Nick Palmieri did get to a rebound - created by an Ilya Kovalchuk drive - to equalize. The Devils didn't let up further, as they forced at least three big stops late to prevent a heartbreak for Carolina.
Overtime was necessary and Tedenby trailing on the play put up the perfect shot late to win it.
Elsewhere in the NHL...
Buffalo 7, Tampa Bay 4: Getting down against the Lightning usually isn't a good thing, but after the Sabres fell behind on Tuesday night, they roared back with five straight goals in the third period to obliterate the Bolts. Drew Stafford picked up a hat trick after scoring his second and third goals just 1:31 apart. Stafford had three shots and three goals in the game. Catch up on this one with coverage from our live StoryStream of the game.
Toronto 5, New York Islanders 3: You knew there was the potential for it to be a rough night when Islanders goalie Kevin Poulin went down to injury during warmups. With Rick DiPietro already out and Poulin serving as really the third starting goalie on the team this season, the team turned to Mikko Koskinen in the pipes. It wasn't a good night. His team battled back from a 2-0 deficit, but three Leafs goals in the third period were just too much.
St. Louis 2, Florida 1: After losing four straight games on the road, the Blues finally got off that horse. Matt D'Agostini scored in the third period to break a 1-1 tie while Jaroslav Halak made 30 saves in goal to give St. Louis the win. David Backes also scored for the Blues, while Dennis Wideman scored on a five-on-three in the first period for the Panthers.