The New Jersey Devils missed a couple of opportunities to climb back to the NHL's .500 mark at the midway point of the season by dropping two of the first three games on their current four-game road trip.
The Devils fell to 16-18-7 with a 3-2 loss to the Golden Knights on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas.
With the loss, New Jersey reached the 41-game mark with 39 points, its fewest through the first half of an 82-game season since 2014-15, when it had just 35 points.
The Devils had a record of 22-11-8 for 52 points through their first 41 games last season.
Ben Lovejoy gave New Jersey a short-lived 2-0 lead Sunday, scoring his first goal of the season and his first in the regular season since Feb. 17, 2018, at Tampa Bay.
Lovejoy now has four goals in his 2½ seasons with New Jersey.
Here is the list of players who have appeared in at least 100 regular-season games for the Devils and scored four or fewer career goals:
Games Goals
Kevin Dean 198 4Sheldon Souray 182 4Ben Lovejoy 177 4Cam Janssen 171 4Anton Volchenkov 222 3Jason Smith 164 3Mark Fraser 132 3David Hale 146 0Tim Sestito 100 0
On Friday night in Arizona, New Jersey came away with a 3-2 shootout win over the Coyotes.
It was the first shootout victory of the season for the Devils and just their second ever in either overtime or a shootout versus the Coyotes.
New Jersey now has two wins, five losses and seven ties in 14 games decided after 60 minutes all-time against Arizona/Winnipeg.
The only other win came on Oct. 20, 2015 -- a 3-2 overtime victory at the Prudential Center on Adam Larsson’s goal 43 seconds into OT.
Kyle Palmieri and Drew Stafford scored the shootout goals for the Devils. Both players are now 4-of-9 on shootout attempts for New Jersey over the past two seasons, tied for the most successful shots on the club
Keith Kinkaid, who took over in goal after Mackenzie Blackwood left in the first period with a lower-body injury, stopped 21 shots and had two more saves in the shootout for the victory.
It was the second time this season and the third time over the last two that Kinkaid won a game that he did not start.
The others were:• Dec. 14, 2018 -- VGK 4 at NJD 5 (OT), relieved Cory Schneider, 9:36 (first period)• Oct. 19, 2017 -- NJD 5 at Ott 4 (OT), relieved Schneider, 40:00 (third period)
Martin Brodeur won four games with New Jersey that he did not start, the most by any Devils goalie coming off the bench in club history. They were:• March 19, 1994 -- NJD 8 at Bos 6, relieved Chris Terreri, 40:00 (third period)• Dec. 9, 1995 -- NYI 2 at NJD 4, relieved Corey Schwab, 26:40 (second period)• Dec. 28, 1996 -- Ana 3 at NJD 5, relieved Mike Dunham, 20:00 (second period)• April 3, 2009 -- TB 4 at NJD 5 (OT), relieved Kevin Weekes, 20:57 (second period)
On Wednesday night in Dallas, the Devils lost the opener of their four-game road trip, 5-4 to the Stars.
Blackwood’s shutout streak ended at 135:28 when he allowed Jamie Benn's goal at 12:31 of the first period. It was the third longest shutout streak by a rookie goaltender in Devils history. Here's a look at the top four.
• Martin Brodeur (March 7-17, 1994) 164:18 • Scott Wedgewood (March 20-25, 2016) 159:34• Mackenzie Blackwood (Dec. 27, 2018-Jan. 2, 2019) 135:26 • Sean Burke (March 27-31, 1988) 112:46
Kyle Palmieri scored his 100th goal as a Devil in the loss. Only five other players scored at least 100 goals in their first four seasons with the franchise:
• Stephane Richer (1991-95) 126 • Zach Parise (2005-09) 122 • Wilf Paiment (1974-78) 119• Claude Lemieux (1990-94) 119• Kirk Muller (1984-88) 105• Kyle Palmieri (2015-19) 100
Plus/Minus:
Plus: Shutting Them Down. New Jersey has held its opponents scoreless five times this season, tied with Pittsburgh and Nashville for the second most shutouts in the NHL behind Vegas, who leads the league with six.
Minus: Not Coming Back. The Devils' win over the Coyotes was just their third come-from-behind victory this season, the fewest in the NHL.