Damon Severson scored in the third round of a shootout, lifting the New Jersey Devils to a 3-2 win over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night, ending their three-game losing streak.
Janne Kuokkanen forced overtime by scoring with just 2:56 left in the third period.
Ryan Graves also found the net, while goalie Jonathan Bernier made 25 saves for the Devils, who went to overtime on the road for the second consecutive day.
Jonathan Dahlen and Rudolfs Balcers scored for the Sharks, aiming for their third straight win but couldn’t hold onto two different leads.
“Watching (Severson) in practice, we saw how often he dominated our goalie, so we decided next time we had a shootout … we’d use him,” said Devils coach Lindy Ruff. “It was a perfect scenario.”
Severson had struggled in Friday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings, and Ruff addressed those issues in a conversation with him earlier in the day.
“It’s a great feeling as a player, especially when you get that vote of confidence from your coach,” Severson said. “After having a good conversation this morning, it felt great to finish the game like that and cap off our road trip with a win.”
The Devils went 0 for 4 on power plays, while the Sharks converted 1 of 3 opportunities.
Sharks goalie James Reimer made 26 saves in the loss.
Balcers gave San Jose a 1-0 lead at 4:48 of the second period with his second goal of the season. Mario Ferraro set up the play by taking the puck deep into Devils territory and finding an open Balcers, who slipped his shot past Bernier.
Graves tied the game late in the second period, scoring his first goal of the season off a pass from Nico Hischier at 16:45. Michael McLeod also earned an assist on the play.
The Sharks regained the lead early in the third period when Dahlen scored on a power play, firing a shot from the top of the circle through traffic and into the top corner of the net.
“I thought we played really hard tonight,” Ferraro said. “It could have gone either way. … (Reimer) made some big saves for us. Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way, but there was a lot of upside.”
Brent Burns contributed two assists for San Jose, extending his point streak to four games. Nick Merkley also had an assist, pushing his point streak to three games.
“I thought we had a great homestand, especially with all the guys out due to COVID,” Ferraro added. “There were far more positives than negatives. We can’t let losses like this bring us down.”
San Jose was short-handed, with seven players and coach Bob Boughner in COVID-19 protocol.
“It’s always disappointing to lose, but I’m quite happy with the effort and commitment the guys showed,” said acting coach John MacLean.
Game Notes
Devils D Christian Jaros (hand) was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Nov. 4. New Jersey recalled D Colton White from their AHL affiliate in Utica. … Devils D Dougie Hamilton (lower body) missed his second straight game and is day-to-day. … Sharks coach Bob Boughner and several key players, including D Erik Karlsson, F Matt Nieto, and D Mark-Edouard Vlasic, are in COVID-19 protocol and will not travel with the team to Calgary next week. … The Sharks recalled F Joel Kellman from the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda a day after sending elite prospect William Eklund back to his club team in Sweden.
UP NEXT
- Devils: Host the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.
- Sharks: Visit the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.
