DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – Winning three of their last four games to end 2022, the 2023 portion of the schedule didn’t start the way Detroit wanted it to. The New Jersey Devils downed Detroit at Little Caesars Arena, 5-1, on Wednesday night.

“On the whole, an incredibly frustrating night in that poor special teams. A great performance by their goalie overshadowed a pretty good 5-on-5 game for us, which is frustrating. But, gotta execute on special teams. We did not,” said head coach Derek Lalonde.

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After a scoreless first period, New Jersey scored the next five goals over the final two periods. They added two in the second and three in the third before Detroit even put one on the board. It wasn’t until the 18:00 mark in the third period that Lucas Raymond netted a goal on a power play assisted by Dylan Larkin and Mortiz Seider.

Larkin said, “The wheels fell off in the third, but we outshot them. But we just didn’t get past Vanecek on the 5-on-5. I think that’s the story tonight.”

Detroit is now 16-13-7 on the year sitting in fifth place in the Atlantic Division. They will host Florida at 7:00 p.m. on Friday night in Little Caesars Arena.