A Swede victory
Devils roll past Oilers in Euro NHL opener
GOTHENBURG, Sweden — Kyle Palmieri, Travis Zajac and the Devils left the Oilers behind in their seasonopener, showing the form that helped them return to the playoffs last season.
Palmieri and Zajac scored two goals each to lead the Devils to a 5-2 victory Saturday night in the NHL Global Series game at Scandinavium.
DEVILS 5 OILERS 2
“We feel like we have a good group, we have a strong culture,” New Jersey coach John Hynes said. “We like we have an identity of how we want to play, the types of players we want, how we want to be off the ice. Those are really the things that matter. We want be a tough team to play against.”
Stefan Noesen also scored, Miles Wood had two assists, and Keith Kinkaid made 17 saves.
“We played a pretty good hockey game from the start,” Zajac said. “Not too many lapses in our play throughout the game, our speed eventually kind of took over. We played the right way, especially with the lead. It’s early in the season and it’s a good sign.”
Milan Lucic and Leon Draisaitl scored for the Oilers.
In the new season, Palmieri didn’t waste time.
He picked up the puck near the boards in the offensive zone, moved unchecked toward the net from the left and beat Cam Talbot inside the far post on the first shot on goal still in the opening minute.
The Oilers came back on a power play, with captain Connor McDavid setting it up. The star center used his speed to carry the puck up ice from his own up zone and skated around the goal to feed Lucic in front for a one-timer to tie it at 4:01.
The Devils took control early in the middle period with goals from Palmieri and Zajac in a 1:09 span. Palmieri scored on a power play for his sec- ond, and Zajac doubled the advantage after Talbot lost the puck behind the goal. The Devils clearly dominated at this stage, outshooting the Oilers 10-4 in the period.
“Obviously, we weren’t good enough, they were good,” McDavid said. “We did some good stuff, we did some bad stuff too.”