DENVER (AP) Brian Boyle scored a go-ahead goal early in the third period, Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and the New Jersey Devils beat the Colorado Avalanche 2-1 on Friday night.
Corey Schneider stopped 22 shots for the Devils, who won in defenseman Sami Vatanen’s debut with New Jersey.
Vatanen played his first game for the Devils after being acquired from Anaheim on Thursday. New Jersey gave up forwards Adam Henrique and Joseph Blandisi for the top-four defenseman, and he was given a full workload against Colorado. He had a team-high 22:47 of ice time.
J.T. Compher scored for Colorado and Semyon Varlamov had 19 saves.
Boyle broke a 1-1 tie with his fourth of the season when he knocked in a rebound on the power play at 13:11 of the third period.
Neither team had great scoring chances through the first 30 minutes before the Devils cashed in on their best one on a turnover.
New Jersey took a 1-0 lead when Colorado defenseman Nikita Zadorov sent a blind backhander from behind the net toward the left circle. Bratt picked it up and beat Varlamov for his eighth of the season at 13:58 of the second.
Colorado responded 3:13 later when Compher scored off a rebound on the power play to tie it. It was his fourth of the season.
The Avalanche didn’t record their first shot on goal until there was 8:02 left in the first during their second power-play chance.
NOTES: The NHL announced Avalanche C Nathan MacKinnon as the first star for November. MacKinnon finished with 20 points in 12 games and was the first Colorado player to have 20 points in a month since Matt Duchene in November 2015. … Devils RW Marcus Johansson returned to the lineup after missing 13 games with a concussion suffered against Vancouver on Nov. 1. … Colorado captain Gabe Landeskog served the second game of his four-game suspension for a crosscheck.
UP NEXT
Devils: Travel to Arizona on Saturday night.
Avalanche: Host Dallas on Sunday night.
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