NHL

Devils lose NHL-record 12th straight shootout

DENVER — The Devils came away with a point, but still managed to be record-settingly bad.

After falling in another shootout — an NHL record 12th consecutive shootout loss, dating back to last season — New Jersey fell to the Avalanche, 2-1, on Thursday night at the Pespi Center. The Devils are 0-8 in shootouts this season.

Goalie Cory Schneider, who stopped 37 shots, couldn’t end the Devils’ drought after keeping his team in the game for the first two periods.

“I don’t know what it is right now, I’m not coming up with the saves in the shootout,” he said after his fourth shootout loss of the season. “When you’re not getting wins from it and you’re leaving points on the table, it matters.”

Andrei Loktionov scored for the Devils, who had their two-game winning streak stopped.

Ryan O’Reilly had the winning shootout goal, but Semyon Varlamov was the hero, notching 33 saves.

“I hate talking about myself. Ask Patrick,” Varlamov said, deferring to coach Patrick Roy.

Matt Duchene also scored in a shootout for the Avalanche, who have won three straight, while Varlamov stoned Patrik Elias and Adam Henrique in yet another shootout failure by the Devils.

Cory Schneider stopped 37 shots and Andrei Loktionov scored for the Devils, who had their two-game winning streak stopped.

Colorado didn’t need much offense with Varlamov in net. After stopping 46 shots in a 3-2 overtime win in Chicago on Tuesday, Varlamov had another strong game against the Devils. He made five saves on a power play early in the third and then made another on Patrik Elias’ point-blank shot from the slot with about 13 minutes left.

The Avalanche nearly took a 2-0 lead on Duchene’s wrister moments later, but Schneider made the save.

Varlamov had five saves in overtime and then stoned Elias and Adam Henrique in the shootout.

“I got a guy lying on his stomach and I couldn’t finish it,” Elias said.

Roy had no problem praising his goalie.

“I like the effort we had from our goalie. He made some great saves,” Roy said. “We put a lot on our goalie and our goalie has been phenomenal.”