OTTAWA — The Devils were already eliminated from the playoffs — a big reason being their inability to win shootouts this season — and Thursday night was no different as Erik Karlsson scored for the Senators with New Jersey going scoreless on four tries in a 2-1 shootout defeat at Canadian Tire Centre.
Erik Karlsson scored the winner for the Senators, while Mike Hoffman also scored for Ottawa and Robin Lehner stopped 38 shots to win his third straight game.
Cory Schneider stopped 31-of-32 shots for the Devils, who got a second-period goal from Michael Ryder, his 18th of the season. Hoffman had opened the scoring for the Senators six minutes earlier.
Travis Zajac, Adam Larsson, Jaromir Jagr and Dainius Zubrus were unable to convert for the Devils in the shootout.
The Devils fell to 0-12 in shootouts this season and have scored three goals on 42 attempts. They have lost 16 shootouts in a row dating back to last season with their last victory coming March 10, 2013 against the Jets.
The Devils only could cringe as they watched Karlsson get the winner as they dropped to 0-12 in shootouts this season.
Schneider was visibly disgusted by yet another shootout loss.
“Take one of our quotes from any point this year and apply it to tonight,” said Schneider, who stopped 31 shots through overtime. “It’s the same result.”
Jagr was also puzzled by the Devils’ fate.
“It’s frustrating, no question about it,” the veteran said. “[The shootout] probably cost us the playoffs, but you’ve got no other choice but to work on it.”
The Senators had a power play for the final 35 seconds of overtime, but couldn’t take advantage.
The Devils had a great chance on a 3-on-1 earlier in the extra period, but Lehner stopped Jagr and at the other end Schneider robbed Chris Phillips from in close. By the end of overtime Jagr had been stopped three times, including on a breakaway.
Devils coach Peter DeBoer admitted his team was flat the first 10 minutes and attributed it to the players still dealing with the reality of not making the playoffs. New Jersey was eliminated Wednesday night.
“You could see we were a little bit out of it,” DeBoer said. “There was a little bit of a hangover, but I thought once we started getting into the game and started to move and we carried the play. We should have had more than one goal.”