Whoever said you need a stud starting goaltender to succeed? Ok, maybe that’s taking things a bit too far, but at least we’ve grabbed your attention. Obviously, over the course of a long season, it’s important to have a strong starting netminder. However, it’s also equally important to have a reliable backup. Gone are the days of Number One goalies starting 65-70 games during the regular season. So, it’s imperative that your Number Two is a steady hand in net.
Sunday night, the New Jersey Devils hosted the Colorado Avalanche at Prudential Center for a game between two of the higher-octane offenses in The League. The result was a 4-0 defeat for the Devils. But one of the subplots of the game was that it featured a battle of the backup netminders. Jake Allen started for New Jersey while noted Devils-killer Scott Wedgewood manned the pipes for Colorado.
During his career – prior to Sunday night – Allen has played 22 games against the Avalanche, making 19 starts and compiling a record of 10-6-3 with a 2.45 GAA, .920 SV% and two shutouts. It should be noted, all 22 of those games came while Allen was a member of the St. Louis Blues and Montreal Canadiens.
Meanwhile, before Sunday night, Wedgewood had played five games against the Devils, making three starts and compiling a record of 3-0-0 with a 1.28 GAA, .958 SV% and one shutout. Those five games were split between his tenures with Arizona (one game), Dallas (three games) and Nashville (one game). That one game with the Predators was actually just a couple weeks ago on November 25th as Wedgewood came into the game in relief, playing 18:56 and turning aside all 15 shots he faced. It should also be noted that Wedgewood has played parts of three seasons with the Devils in his career, so he’s both a friend and foe.
Now that we know the Tale Of The Tape, let’s check out how these two netminders performed against each other on Sunday night. For Allen, he had a bit of a rough go. Allen faced just 22 shots and gave up three goals. (Colorado’s fourth goal was an empty-netter). As for Wedgewood, he put together his second career shutout against the Devils, turning aside all 26 shots he faced.
“He made some good saves,” Devils Captain Nico Hischier explained. ‘We had our chances for sure. We had some great chances to score, but they just didn’t go in.”
As for the rest of the game, here’s the breakdown…
After a back-and-forth opening couple of minutes, Jake Allen blinked first, to no fault of his own. Ross Colton, who is from New Jersey for the record, was left all alone on the doorstep and quickly deposited Casey Mittelstadt’s pass from behind the net into the back of the net. 1-0 Avalanche 4:07 into the game.
New Jersey almost tied it the game moments later, but it was immediately waved off as a “No-Goal” because Jesper Bratt batted the puck in with a high stick. The Devils were denied by the officials again a few moments later when the puck trickled through Wedgewood and into the net, but the goal was waved off after a review. This time it was determined that Timo Meier pushed Wedgewood into the net, causing the puck to go in as well.
Things settled down a bit after that, at least until the final five minutes and change in the first period. That’s when Logan O’Connor wickedly deflected a pass from Calvin de Haan, past Allen, to increase Colorado’s lead to 2-0. By the end of the first period, over the course of his two appearances against the Devils this season, Wedgewood was at 25 consecutive saves made and zero goals allowed; a true Devils-Killer indeed. (15 in the Nashville game and 10 more in the first period of this one).
The second period was not a pleasant one for the home team. Right out of the gate, the Avalanche applied pressure and controlled play for an overwhelming amount of time. Eventually, with 14:36 gone by in the period and the Devils going for a change, Artturi Lehkonen hopped over the boards, received a stretch pass from Mittelstadt and sniped the puck past Allen to give the Avalanche a 3-0 lead. All told, the second period was one New Jersey would like to forget as they were outshot 10-2 and rarely had possession of the puck.
While the Devils managed to put up 14 shots in the third period, they were unable to break through thanks to Colorado clogging the neutral zone and preventing second-chance opportunities on the occasions the Devils did manage to get into the O-zone. Parker Kelly added the final goal, an empty-netter, at the 16:05 mark of the third period to put the final touches on New Jersey’s 4-0 defeat.
The “Legend” of Scott Wedgewood lives on as he once again outdueled his Devils’ counterpart. For New Jersey’s sake, they hope they won’t see him again this season.
photo by Drew King.
