EDMONTON-

After going shutout for only the second time in his career last season, Jake Allen already has two shutouts for the New Jersey Devils in just five starts this year.

Allen made 31 saves for the 26th shutout of his career as the Devils closed out their trip to Western Canada with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

“I think finishing two out of three on this trip, it’s been a long journey for everyone involved and we’re ready to go home and being able to go home on a happy flight is important to us,” Allen said , 34, who plays a backup role behind Jacob Markstrom with the Devils this season.

“It’s been 10 or 11 days since my last match and for me, these practices are almost like my matches. I feel like my last week was really good.

Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe said Allen was outstanding that night.

“We won thanks to incredible goaltending. Jake gives us a chance to start the game, so the credit definitely goes to him,” Keefe said.

“I thought we had a ‘bend, don’t break’ mentality throughout and I thought the third period was our best period in terms of less defending, pressing and extending our lead.”

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist, and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four games following a four-game losing streak.

“I think overall we did a good job the whole game, even though at times they had us pinned in our zone,” Meier said. “We didn’t break down and we stayed strong and that’s what gave us the victory tonight.”

In addition to his goal, Bratt collected his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points in total. Nico Hischier remains at the top of the team, collecting his own assist which gives him 16 points for the campaign. He has scored a point in all but four games this season.

The Oilers (6-6-1) ended a modest two-game winning streak.

Calvin Pickard made just 13 saves in front of the post for Edmonton.

One of the biggest issues at this point in the season is special teams, which rank last in the league in penalty killing and with their power play usually touted at 25th.

“Special teams are huge,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “You look at our playoff run. We can’t make it to the Stanley Cup Final if we didn’t have an incredible power play and an incredible penalty kill.

“It’s gotten us through a lot of series. It wins you hockey games. We know our power play is going to get better, we know our penalty kill is going to get better, it’s just about finding the ‘execution.”

Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl was deemed useless after taking over as the team’s scoring lead with captain Connor McDavid on the shelf for a few weeks due to an ankle injury, recording six points in his two previous games and nine points in his previous four.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published November 4, 2024.