Kyle Palmieri scored in the first period and Mackenzie Blackwood stopped all 40 shots he faced Sunday, as the visiting New Jersey Devils withstood a furious last-minute flurry by the Boston Bruins to eke out a 1-0 win.
The shutout was the first of the season for Blackwood but the second time this season a Devils goalie has recorded 40 saves in a 1-0 win over the Bruins. Scott Wedgewood also did it in Boston on March 7.
A pair of reviews in the final 70 seconds helped preserve Blackwood’s shutout.
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The Bruins appeared to tie the game with 1:10 left when Patrice Bergeron poked a loose puck into the net, but the Devils challenged the call and it was overturned due to goalie interference on David Krejci, who was ruled to have pushed Blackwood’s glove as he pried the puck free.
The Bruins thought they tied the score again in the final seconds, when a putback attempt by Nick Ritchie came within centimeters of landing over the goal line before Blackwood sprawled out and pushed the puck away with his pads. Boston initially celebrated as New Jersey iced the puck, but the no goal call stood upon review with 1.1 seconds left.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Devils, who improved to 4-0-1 in five games this season against the Bruins. The shutout was the first for Blackwood since he had 37 saves against the Los Angeles Kings in a 3-0 win on Feb. 8, 2020.
Goalie Jaroslav Halak made 28 saves for the Bruins, who had their four-game point streak (3-0-1) snapped.
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The Devils scored the game’s only goal in quirky fashion late in the first.
Jesper Bratt shuffled the puck for several seconds behind a faceoff circle and skated to the blue line, where he handed the puck off to Ty Smith beyond Anders Bjork’s extended stick. Smith headed to the faceoff circle and fired a shot into a scrum that included three players from each team in front of Halak. The puck ticked off Palmieri’s lower leg and fluttered over Halak’s glove with 3:23 left.
–Field Level Media