Devils Fall To Hurricanes in Overtime, 1-0

Despite falling in overtime 1-0, the New Jersey Devils played one of their best games of the 2023-24 season Saturday night against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena.

Over 60-plus minutes, the Devils played a consistent and gritty game. They were defensively sound, blocking 24 shots in front of goaltender Vitek Vanecek.

Defenseman Kevin Bahl finished the game with four of his team's 26 hits and two blocked shots.

"Defensively, I thought we were really structured," Bahl said. "Staying above guys, they maybe had one breakaway, maybe they had one 2-on-1, and Luke (Hughes) shut it down."

Vanecek faced 33 shots and made 32 saves. The lone goal against was scored 3:40 into overtime. Sebastian Aho batted in a rebound out of the air at the top of the crease to secure two points and the win for the Hurricanes.

"(Vanecek) played a great game for us," Ruff said. "I thought we played a really good first period to let him get into the game, didn't face a lot in the first, but he made some quality saves. And you know, with the talent (Carolina) has upfront, you're going to face some opportunities, but I thought our defending, our attention to detail around the net front was good, and when we had a breakdown (Vanecek) made a good save."

Offensively, the Devils had their chances. Jack Hughes finished the game with seven shots on goal, while Tyler Toffoli finished with six.

Their power play went 0-for-4 against Carolina. New Jersey had some good looks, but opposing netminder Pyotr Kochetkov stood tall.

"I thought our power play tonight, Nico (Hischier) had a couple of point-blank (opportunities) we just did not convert," Ruff said. "We are going to have to work on putting the puck between those two red things."

"I think we can definitely build on this game," Timo Meier said. "It was a 60-minute solid performance, and now we just have to build block after block and this is something to build off of."

UP NEXT: The Devils will host Tomas Tatar and the Seattle Kraken on Monday, Jan. 12.

LINES:

Ondrej Palat - Nico Hischier - Jesper Bratt

Jack Hughes - Erik Haula - Tyler Toffoli

Timo Meier - Curtis Lazar - Dawson Mercer

Alexander Holtz - Tomas Nosek - Nathan Bastian

Kevin Bahl - Simon Nemec

Luke Hughes - John Marino

Santeri Hatakka - Colin Miler

Vitek Vanecek

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