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Ilya Kovalchuk was not about to flub this one. With his Devils on a 4-on-3 power play, Kovalchuk one-timed a blast placed on a tee by pointman Henrik Tallinder at 3:27 of overtime to give New Jersey a 4-3 win over Edmonton in a game between the teams with the worst records in the Eastern and Western conferences. "It's nice, but it's only the start," said Kovalchuk, who famously whiffed on his chance in a shootout in a loss at home to Buffalo two nights earlier. "We're still five points out of the playoffs."
It was the first victory this season for the Devils at the Prudential Center in Newark, where they are now 1-5-2. Kovalchuk's goal was his first in eight games.
Trailing 3-1 midway through the second period, the Devils appeared like they may hit the lowest point in their stunning early-season freefall with a loss at home to the Oilers. Friday was supposed to be the night first-year coach John MacLean got his first win in New Jersey. After all, Edmonton was reeling after getting blown out in consecutive games, 7-1 in Carolina on Tuesday and 6-2 in Detroit on Thursday.
But nothing has come easy for the Devils in 2010-11, after an offseason seemingly spent entirely on signing -- and paying the price -- for Kovalchuk. For the first two periods, the Oilers looked like a team with nothing to lose, the Devils with everything. When Edmonton took a 2-0 lead in the first, you had to wonder if New Jersey general manager Lou Lamoriello went back to his office to start making a new round of plans.
Getting the game off on an absurdist note was the offensive exploits of fourth-liner Colin Fraser, who scored the first two goals of the game -- also his first two of his season. And to think, with just 2:41 of icetime, Fraser played the least of anyone in coach Tom Renney's lineup in the first period.
But the Devils got the game to overtime at 3-3 behind the first goal of the season by veteran Brian Rolston and the first goals in the NHL careers of Alexander Vasyunov and Mattias Tedenby. The speedy Tedenby tied the game with nine minutes left in regulation.
In the 4-on-4 overtime, Kovalchuk drew a tripping penalty on Edmonton forward Dustin Penner at 2:41 before cashing in 46 seconds later.
"We needed this," said Tedenby. "We're very happy about the win. The minute we got in the locker room, we turned the music way up."
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