DEVILS ARE IN
NEWARK, N.J. — The New Jersey Devils are back in the National Hockey League playoffs for the first time since 2012.
Patrick Maroon set up secondperiod goals by Pavel Zacha and Miles Wood and the Devils ended a five-year post-season drought with a 2-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night.
Keith Kinkaid, the mainstay in goal since the end of January, made 31 saves as the Devils won their fourth straight and extended their points streak to eight games (7-0-1). He preserved the lead with a stop in close on Austin Matthews with just over seven minutes to play.
New Jersey is 10-2-1 in its last 13 in going from the worst team in the Eastern Conference a year ago to one that will get a chance to start playing for the Stanley Cup next week.
After it was over, the players went to centre ice and saluted the fans who were standing for much of the final minute.
William Nylander scored on a power play in the first period for Toronto to ice his second straight 20-goal season. Frederik Anderson was outstanding, making 37 saves, including saves on breakaways by Taylor Hall and Michael Grabner in the big second period.
The loss was only the fourth in 13 games (9-3) for the Maple Leafs, who will face either Boston or Tampa Bay in the first round of the playoffs,.
New Jersey will have to wait for its opponent to be decided.
While the Devils had the majority of shots for the first 27-plus minutes, they fell behind 1-0 when Nylander scored from the right circle 12 seconds after Nico Hischier was called for tripping.
Zacha didn’t tie the game until 7:55 of the second period. He won a puck along the boards in centre ice, worked a give-and-go with Maroon entering the Toronto zone and beat Andersen with a shot from the left circle just under the crossbar.
Maroon did all the work on Wood’s 18th goal. He fended off Nazem Kadri carrying the puck from in front of his bench, all the way behind the net and then came out the other side and found Wood alone.