Hall, Devils down SC Bern 3-2 in Extra Frame

The New Jersey Devils closed out their pre-season schedule in Bern, Switzerland with a 3-2 victory over SC Bern, members of the Swiss National League. It was certainly a closer game than one would’ve expected, with the Devils only ever holding a one-goal lead. New Jersey’s regular season opener will come in a one p.m. start on Saturday October 6 against the Edmonton Oilers, a game that will be played in Gothernburg, Sweden as part of the NHL’s Global Series.

New Jersey got out to a 1-0 lead 5:54 into the opening frame, when Miles Wood slid a pass from the right-side wall to Andy Greene. Greene took the puck in the high slot, and snapped it home passed the Bern goalie, Leonardo Genoni. It was the captain’s second goal in as many games this pre-season. New Jersey held onto this lead for the remainder of the first period, where they played a solid twenty-minute frame.

In the second period, Bern tied the game quickly off a Devils defensive-zone turnover. Simon Moser received a clean feed in front of the New Jersey net, turned, and buried a shot behind Keith Kinkaid to tie the game less than a minute into action in the second frame. But Ben Lovejoy gave the Devils back their lead with a little over seven minutes to play in the same period. Lovejoy took a pass from Pavel Zacha, who fed him just above the faceoff circles, and stepped into a hard shot that beat Genoni to restore the Devils lead. Again, New Jersey would head to the dressing room up by a goal.

In the third, it appeared the Devils would take home a regulation victory over Bern. But Bern’s Mark Arcobello tied the game at two with a late-period marker. So to overtime the game went, where Taylor Hall would be the hero, as he was for many games a year ago.

Stats for the game don’t seem to have been recorded anywhere online. But, I’ll link the highlights here.