Saturday’s game between the Blue Jackets and Devils featured nine goals, plenty of chances and a quick tempo.
Sunday’s game between the same two teams was quite the opposite in all facets.
The pace slowed, the chances dried up and there was not much going on for either side at Prudential Center this afternoon. Devante Smith-Pelly, playing his ninth game as a Devil since coming over in a trade from Montreal, scored the tie-breaking goal in the third period to lead New Jersey to a 2-1 victory.
With the win, the Devils avoided a season series sweep to the Blue Jackets, who won four of the five meetings and out-scored New Jersey by an 18-8 margin (twice scoring six goals in a game).
“Neither team gave the other too much,” said Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella. “I don’t think we played badly. We just couldn’t score.”
The opening goal came off the stick of Reid Boucher in the first period, a quick shot that beat Joonas Korpisalo on a pass from the red-hot Kyle Palmieri at 4:32.
In the second period, the Blue Jackets got an equalizer after some quality work from their fourth line of Michael Chaput, Gregory Campbell and Jared Boll. Chaput cleanly won a face-off back to the point where Dalton Prout sent a quick shot toward rookie goaltender Scott Wedgewood, and Boll was alone on the door step for a redirection.
Wedgewood had no time to react and Boll’s goal at 2:43 made it a 1-1 game – his first goal of the season and first since Feb. 13, 2015.
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