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NEWARK, N.J. — The night before Thanksgiving is a traffic nightmare in many metropolitan areas, but none may be worse than New York City.
The New Jersey Devils know that, and made it to their game in plenty of time Wednesday night. The Minnesota Wild, New Jersey’s opponent, didn’t and didn’t.
But they did get a win.
After a 24-minute delay to the first period — caused by the Wild’s clogged travel into New Jersey from Manhattan — Minnesota escaped with a 3-2 shootout victory in which Kevin Fiala scored the lone goal in the extra session.
It was much needed, as the Wild closed a road trip by ending a two-game skid, remaining atop the Central Division along the way.
Cam Talbot made 42 saves and thwarted the home team in overtime and the shootout after the Devils tied the score with two third-period goals.
With the Holland Tunnel closed, the Wild had to find alternative roads to get to the Prudential Center, not the easiest thing to do the night before a holiday. The team bus did not arrive until 6:26 p.m. and the start was pushed back to 7:33 p.m.
“We took a nice beautiful, scenic route in New York City,” Minnesota forward Marcus Foligno said.
While the Wild may have some fun with this moving forward, it didn’t particularly sit well with the home team.
“My opinion is it’s a little bit irresponsible on their part,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said.
But Minnesota appeared fresh in the early going, scoring two first-period goals before the Devils rallied. Dmitry Kulikov, a former Devils defenseman, assisted on Ryan Hartman’s goal to open the scoring 12:10 into the first and give the Wild a 1-0 lead. Nico Strum scored at 19:06, making it 2-0 at the first intermission.
“It is what it is,” Sturm said. “At some point on the bus, we just accepted the fact that that’s how it was going to be.”
The Devils cut the lead in half early in the third when Pavel Zacha scored to make it 2-1 at 3:08. And New Jersey tied the score with six skaters on the ice when Yegor Sharangovich…
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Source : espn
