Ilya Kovalchuk was the hero of the game for New Jersey as he got the game winner at 4:36 in overtime. Kovy’s goal was as impressive as they come.
The star winger skated the length of the ice and fired a wrist shot past Leafs goalie James Reimer and gave the Devils another huge overtime win—their second this week.
With the victory, Devils head coach Jacques Lemaire also had something special to celebrate as he got his 600th career win.
Lemaire discussed his milestone on MSG saying, “Thinking about it, what comes to mind are the people I’ve worked with. All the assistant coaches who were around me, the managers, all great people that I enjoyed working with—these people helped me tremendously.”
He also commented on how things have changed in the locker room for the players since the All-Star break. “Right now, the guys are more vocal. They are more involved and more excited to play and it’s more fun for us.”
New Jersey now has 46 points and is on a roll, doing everything they can to pull themselves closer to playoff contention.
Johan Hedberg was between the pipes again for New Jersey and he played well, stopping 31 of 32 shots on goal.
Hedberg commented on the win, “I think we played solid on the ice and got the big win.”
Kovlchuk Thriller
The first period came and went without any scoring but the Devils came out of the gates a little quicker than they had on Tuesday night against the Carolina Hurricanes and played aggressively at both ends.
Early in the second period however, the Devils defense was under assault from a flurry of shots by Toronto, which resulted in a sprawling Hedberg who could do little to prevent a rebounded shot by winger Nikolai Kulemin that sailed quickly past him at 5:18.
The Devils evened things up though at 3:23 in the third period as center
Dainius Zubrus put a shot on point that skirted past Reimer and quieted the home crowd.
With both teams tied, the period came to a close and the game went into overtime.
And once again the stick of Kovalchuk delivered the goods. He may have cost a lot of money but an end-to-end rush in overtime to win the game is about as much excitement as a hockey superstar can provide.
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