*Photo from AP News*
It wasn't the prettiest, but they'll take it. Akria Schmid starred in net, Simon Nemec scored, and the New Jersey Devils defeated the Seattle Kraken with a 2-1 victory on Thursday night in Seattle.
The Devils won their 5th out of their last 6 games on Thursday, handing the Kraken their 6th straight loss in the process. 6 different skaters recorded a point for the Devils, who got equally strong goaltending to come away with the win.
Devils forward Ondrej Palat said of the tight game that ended in a win that ""Finally, we found a way to win. We’ve got to be comfortable with those types of games. Schmid stood on his head. It wasn’t our best but we need to win those types of games."
It was the Devils who started the scoring in the first period. Palat did the honors, scoring his 4th goal of the season 17:14 into the opening period, making it 1-0 Devils with John Marino and Nico Hischier assisting. At the 7:12 mark of the second period, Tye Kartye scored his 5th goal of the season, getting the Kraken on the board and tying the game 1-1.
Less than two minutes later, the former second overall pick got on the board. Nemec scored his first NHL goal at the 9:08 mark of the second, giving the Devils a 2-1 lead with assists from Jesper Bratt and Jonas Siegenthaler. The game would go without a goal for the rest of the time, giving the Devils the one goal win.
New Jersey head coach Lindy Ruff said of Nemec's play "Another strong game from Nemec. He was able to jump in and find a lane, great shot. He had a couple opportunities where he was in on good offensive plays. His hockey sense, his ability to pick the right time is good."
Starting in net for the Devils was Schmid, who played well to get the win and improve to 4-5-1 in 11 games. Schmid stopped all but one of the 38 shots the Kraken sent his way, giving him a stellar .974 save percentage.
Getting the start opposite Schmid for the Kraken was Philipp Grubauer, who got hit with the loss, dropping his record to 5-9-1. Grubauer turned aside 15 out of the 17 shots on goal the Devils had, recording a .882 save percentage.
Kraken forward Alex Wennberg said of the 6th straight loss that "Obviously, right now, it’s not working. But I feel like the belief is in the team. We're all together here, and we're finding something. We're going to grow from this and become better, and right now we’ve just got to find a way to get the first one. After that, we’re going to keep rolling."
Both teams resume their schedules on Saturday. The Devils head to Canada to face the Calgary Flames, with Vitek Vanecek the projected starter. Grubauer is the likely starter for the Kraken when they play the Tampa Bay Lightning at home.
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