NEWARK — It was a strong start, but a slow finish for the Devils and in the end it was just a 4-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Prudential Center.
Defensive miscues and a poorly timed penalty taken by Timo Meier ended up being the difference maker in the end as the Devils missed the chance to gain ground on the Metropolitan Division-leading Carolina Hurricanes. The Devils remained two points behind Carolina for the division lead and struggled to keep the puck out of the back of the net.
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Tuesday night was the fourth consecutive game that the Devils had surrendered at least four goals to an opponent.
“I think we were sloppy defensively,” Devils head coach Lindy Ruff said. You look at the power play goal, just a total missed assignment on our part. Tying goal, two missed assignments, I mean, you can easily just, you know, always go and blame the goaltender, but you look at some of the missed assignments in the Arizona game. A game that we let them come back in that game, so it’s crept into our game.
“Until we lock down that part of our game we’re making it tough on our goaltender.”
It was a nearly two-minute swing late in the third period that did the Devils in.
First, Justin Holl found David Kamp speeding into the Devils’ zone and drew the attention of three New Jersey defenders. He moved the puck over to an open Michael Bunting for the tying goal at 15:10.
After Meier got booked for high sticking less than a minute later, the Maple Leafs took advantage of the late-game power play. Austin Matthews had plenty of space at the top of the slot and William Nylander found him for the game-winning goal with 2:53 left on the clock.
“Should have kept my stick down and, you know, just kind of how it goes tonight,” Meier said about the penalty. “Learning from it and it’s gonna motivate me to get better. And make sure this is not gonna happen again the next time we’re in this position. We’re gonna turn the game to our side.”
Erik Haula scored twice for the Devils in the loss and Ondrej Palat also scored for New Jersey. The two-goal night was Haula’s first of the season and his first multi-goal game since April 24, 2022, when he was with the Boston Bruins.
Vitek Vanecek made 21 saves in his 38th start of the year for the Devils.
The Maple Leafs jumped to a 1-0 lead a little over seven minutes into the second period. Calle Jarnkrok easily finished a feed from William Nylander, who made a nice play to find Jarnkrok for the goal.
The Maple Leafs’ lead was shortlived as New Jersey answered back less than 10 minutes later when Haula scored his first goal of the night to even the score at one. Ilya Samsonov made an initial stop on a shot from Jesper Boqvist, but nobody was able to clear the loose puck and Haula cleaned up the rebound.
Toronto regained the lead at the 4:57 mark of the third while on an extended penalty kill. The Devils had drawn a four-minute high-sticking call at the end of the second, but it was the Maple Leafs that capitalized.
Mitch Marner was able to get behind the Devils’ defense and outmaneuvered Vanecek to slip the puck past his leg. However, New Jersey was able to answer quickly with a goal from Ondrej Palat, who used a nifty move of his own to beat Samsanov at the 6:00 mark of the third.
Haula’s second of the game gave the Devils hope for a win when he deflected a shot from Palat for the go-ahead goal at 9:02.
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