When the Devils scored the game tying goal on a bounce off Slava Voynov’s chest late in the second period, it was easy to start feeling paranoid. After all, they played a number of games in the regular season where they seemed to dominate but couldn’t put that extra goal they needed in the net. In fact, they had the league’s fourth worst record in one goal games in the regular season. When Anze Kopitar skated unimpeded toward Martin Brodeur in overtime, he yet again proved that those days have long since passed.
The Kings had their active forecheck working much better than the Devils throughout, but it didn’t lead to very many chances. After the Devils scored, the Kings started to activate their defensemen a little more in order to try to generate more shots. This lead to the game opening up in the 3rd period. The Devils were able to effectively counter and out-pressured the Kings for the first time.
It was anybody’s game heading into overtime. The Kings regrouped and were able to retake control. There were 23 shot attempts in the overtime, and the Kings had 14 of them. One of those 14 being Anze Kopitar’s beautiful forehand winner.
[Boxscore] [Head-to-head time on ice] [Shot differential (Fenwick/Corsi)] [Faceoffs]
For the Devils perspective please visit In Lou We Trust.
Highlights and interviews after the jump.
Darryl Sutter was his typically calm and lovably awkward self after the game:
Peter DeBoer wasn’t happy with his team’s performance but felt confident they would recover:
Game 2 is Saturday at 5:00 PST. Until then check back with us for more as we will breakdown this game in detail, preview the next and present you with any relevant news.
(credit Chemmy)
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