The New Jersey Devils couldn’t shake off their previous night’s defeat against the Toronto Maple Leafs, leading to a resounding 7-1 loss on Tuesday night.
Mitchell Marner scored twice and added an assist, while Jack Campbell made 31 saves to help Toronto dominate the Devils.
“That loss last night was tough and seemed to carry over into today. Still, there are no excuses,” said interim coach Alain Nasreddine, stepping in for Lindy Ruff, who was mourning his father. “Today wasn’t pretty.”
The Maple Leafs opened the scoring just 2:13 into the first period after Jon Gillies mishandled the puck near his net. Pierre Engvall collected it and passed it to Jason Spezza for the one-timer, which marked Spezza’s ninth goal of the season.
Toronto added two more goals in quick succession later in the first period. Auston Matthews scored his 29th goal at 8:38, followed by David Kampf’s fifth of the season at 9:04, making it 3-0. Marner extended the lead to 4-0 with about 4 1/2 minutes left in the period.
“Our starts haven’t been as strong as we wanted recently,” Matthews said. “We focused on starting well today, and Spezza’s goal got us going. From there, we kept the momentum. Campbell made big saves when needed, and we controlled the puck, challenging the net. It was a complete team effort for the full 60 minutes.”
In the second period, Michael Bunting and Engvall further increased the lead.
Backup goaltender Jon Gillies allowed six goals on 28 shots for the Devils before being replaced by Akira Schmid, who made seven saves.
The Devils’ lone goal came from Jack Hughes on a breakaway, his 12th of the season, at 3:31 of the third period. Marner quickly responded with his second goal just two minutes later.
Heading into the All-Star break, the Devils have lost six consecutive games and nine of their last 10, while the Maple Leafs have won five straight.
“We played a great third period last night but didn’t perform well tonight from the start,” said Devils defenseman Damon Severson. We need to use this break to regroup and return ready to play. We’ve shown we can compete with top teams when we’re on, but we haven’t been on for the last five periods.”
UP NEXT
- Maple Leafs: Host Carolina on Monday.
- Devils: At Ottawa on Monday.
