The Ducks were embarking on their third game in five days and it definitely showed Saturday.
New Jersey’s Jake Allen stopped 30 shots as the Devils won for the first time in six games at home with four unanswered goals for a 4-1 victory at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
The Ducks, coming off a 5-2 loss to the New York Islanders on Thursday as part of a five-game road trip, didn’t engineer a shot on Allen more than 10 minutes into the game and failed to convert on four power-play opportunities.
The Ducks welcomed back goalie Lukáš Dostál in his first game off injured reserve. The Czech netminder, who had missed nine games with an upper-body injury, finished with 18 saves.
Coming into the game, Dostál had an 11-5-1 record with a .904 save percentage.
Troy Terry opened the scoring for the Ducks (19-12-1) with his 10th goal of the season and third in three games on a breakaway in the first period. Leo Carlsson assisted for his 40th point of the season.
Stefan Noesen tied it up at 16:09 of the first period, then assisted with Juho Lammikko on Paul Cotter’s goal – scoring in his third consecutive game – to give New Jersey a 2-1 lead at 5:52 of the second period.
Cody Glass added to the lead at 17:04 of the second on a shot from the high slot.
Allen stopped 13 shots in the final period. The Ducks pulled his counterpart with a little more than four minutes left, after which Allen denied Ducks rookie sensation Beckett Sennecke with a pad stop. Two minutes later, Connor Brown scored on an empty netter.
The Devils were without leading goal scorer Timo Meier for the second game in a row due to a family health matter. Before the game, New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters, “we will give him (Meier) all the time he needs.”
The Ducks, who got off to an 11-3-1 start and have been 8-9 since, get a day off before wrapping up the road trip against the New York Rangers on Monday night and Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.