Devils Miss Big Chance

Two critical points were left on the table by the Devils tonight.

Sure, Ottawa had two fortunate bounces go their way in the form of both Condra goals, but the Devils did not do themselves any favors tonight.

During the firs period, they had numerous chances to fire home rebounds and loose pucks, Craig Anderson was equal to the task.

The second period returned to its old form as the bane of the Devils' game tonight.

The first of the Senators two fortunate bounces came early in the period and because of it, the Devils would have to play catchup. Erik Condra deposited his own rebound while jumping over Brodeur's left pad following an impressive pass from Jason Spezza.

The Devils would have chances of their own on two 5 on 3 power plays in which they failed to mount any significant scoring threat. The Devils focused so heavily on getting Ilya Kovalchuk the puck, they seemed to forget that if they spread the Senators defenders or, more space and lanes would open up.

Their best chance to score came on a disallowed goal off the stick of Patrik Elias who slapped home a rebound off an alleged high stick by Jacob Josefson who not only didn't hit the puck with his stick above the crossbar, he didn't hit the puck at all.

The Senators would exit the second period with the lead but the Devils and their fans still had that feeling they could make the comeback.

Patrik Elias would make everyone believe again when he avenged his earlier disallowed goal. Elias quietly broke in behind the Senators' defenders as Brian Rolston controlled the puck in the low right corner before he fed Elias for the back door goal.

With the two teams level again, the crowd did their best to fuel the Devils' push for the lead. The team responded by generating chances of their own but, again nothing came to fruition.

What seemed like the Devils' chance and game for be taking, quickly turned for the worst as Spezza struck again by setting up another goal just under 3 minutes to play in regulation. He possessed the puck in the high left point waiting for reinforcements and it was Condra who snuck behind Nick Palmieri and managed to tip the feed between Brodeur's right pad and the right post.

The Devils quickly threw their game into desperation mode but could not generate an organized attack to try and mount another comeback.

The only consolation for the Devils in their quest on this improbable playoff run is that the Buffalo Sabres failed to put further distance between them and the rest of the East with a 3-1 loss in Pittsburgh to the Penguins.

The Devils return to action Friday against the Atlanta Thrashers, and hopefully return to their winning ways. The game Friday could have positioning implications as the two teams are separated by only a point.