Devils Enter Olympic Break on Loss to Islanders | GAME STORY

NEWARK, NJ - The New Jersey Devils head into the Olympic break on a loss to the New York Islanders.

The Islanders Bo Horvat scored late in the third period to break a 1-1 draw and the Devils are handed a loss from the Islanders, 3-1.

“We were right there again,” Hishier said of the game being tied late in the game. “But too many times this season, it’s definitely very, very frustrating.”

Casey Cizikas opened the games scoring in the second period, before Nico Hischier answered late in the middle frame, with his 19th goal of the season. The goal sent the Devils and Islanders into the final 20 minutes before the extended break, deadlocked at 1-1.

Horvat scored the game-winner with 3:27 to play, and Mat Barzal hit the empty net with less than a minute to play to seal the win for New York.

“Their top scorer kicks in alone on Jake (Allen) and thats the game,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said of Horvat’s game-winning goal. “That’s kind of the difference, kind of where we’re at."

“We did a lot of good things to win this game, but at the end we come up short again,” Hischier added. “We should have just tried to get the overtime and we’ve been good this year in overtime and try to get the second point there. It sucks to have that as our last game.”

New Jersey enters the break with a 28-27-2 record and 58 points.

"Not good enough, not the way we wanted to go into the break,” Jake Allen, who made 11 saves on 13 shots, said. “It’s going to be tough three weeks.”

Horvat had a goal and an assist, and Ilya Sorokin made 23 saves for the Islanders.

The National Hockey League will now take a hiatus as its players venture to Milan for the Olympic Games. The mens hockey tournament starts next week with the preliminary round starting on Feb. 11, where Simon Nemec and Slovakia will take on Finland. That game will be followed by Jesper Bratt and Jacob Markstrom competing for Sweden against Italy.

Nico Hischier, Timo Meier and Jonas Siegenthaler open their tournament a day later when Switzerland goes up against France on Feb. 12.

Here are some observations from the game:

• Nick Bjugstad made his Devils debut and became the first player in Devils history to wear No. 72 in franchise history. Bjugstad was traded from the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday and joined the club on Thursday morning. Bjugstad entered the lineup, skating as the fourth line center, alongside Paul Cotter and Maxim Tsyplakov.

With Bjugstad's arrival, Luke Glendening was made a healthy scratch.

• Jake Allen has his first point of the season, picking up the primary assist on Nico Hischier's second period goal.

• At the start of the 2024-25 NHL season, the league rolled out a new rule allowing coaches to challenge delay-of-game, puck-over-the-glass penalties. It’s not something you see used all that often, but Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe took advantage of it Thursday night after Johnny Kovacevic was assessed an early penalty.

Keefe and his staff challenged the call, believing the puck had been deflected before going out of play. After a fairly quick review, the officials agreed and waved off the penalty.

• The was a small adjustment made to the first power play unit, adding Arseny Gritsyuk alongside Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Connor Brown and Dougie Hamilton. Gritsyuk took over puck-carrying duties through the neutral zone, helping set up clean entries and giving the rest of the unit the opportunity to set up in the offensive zone, while having puck possession.

Although the power play did not convert, they were able to have an extended presence, but Ilya Sorokin turned aside the three shots he faced on the one Devils power play.

Gritsyuk rotated in for Timo Meier, who had been a regular on the top power play group over the past stretch.

• The Devils honored their seven Olympians headed to Milan this week. In a pregame send-off ceremony, all Devils Olympians stood at the blueline, surrounded by their native flags.

• Just a few short days after being traded from New Jersey to Long Island, Ondrej Palat made his return to Prudential Center, after playing the last three and a half years with the Devils. New Jersey saluted their former assistant captain with a tribute video and thank you message.