The New Jersey Devils have struggled recently against the New York Islanders. Before Saturday’s matchup, it was worse than it looked.
Evan Rodrigues did more than just tie Saturday night’s game when he scored at 15:23 in the first period.
Per Marc Ciampa of NewJerseyDevils.com, “The goal ended a stretch of 179:48 of game time without a Devils goal at UBS Arena.”
Do the math, and that is almost the equivalent of three straight 60-minute games. The Devils may be a great hockey team, but it shows how unbelievably bad they were on Long Island.
That included an ill-fated trip earlier this season when the Devils lost 6-0 to New York. That loss also marked New Jersey’s sixth straight against the Islanders, so the odds were more than stacked against them.
For the Devils, it almost seemed like they needed to do more than ask themselves what they had to do to win against New York. They needed to start smaller and figure out how to score on Long Island again.
Neither Rodrigues’ goal nor coming up strong in the third period came easy for New Jersey. Ilya Sorokin was in the net for the Islanders. Even in a game when Sorokin allowed five goals, he still made 45 saves.
Devils Break A Scoreless Drought At UBS Arena That Dates Back To Dec. 2025
One must go back to Dec. 23, 2025, for when the Devils last scored a goal at UBS Arena. Defenseman Brett Pesce made it happen when he linked up with Nico Hischier and Dawson Mercer at the 15:35 mark of the first period.
What followed was an 18-0 run by the Islanders at UBS Arena. They scored two unanswered goals on Dec. 23, then crushed New Jersey 9-0 on Jan. 6, 2026, before winning 6-0 on Oct. 3. Anthony Duclair’s goal at 15:06 in the first period on Saturday extended New York’s scoring streak to 18 before Rodrigues snapped it.
Interestingly, the Islanders extended their run to 21-2 with goals from Matthew Schaefer, Simon Holmstrom, and Victor Eklund. Declan Chisholm scored New Jersey’s second goal of the evening before Holmstrom and Eklund got on the board.
The massive run finally ended when the Devils scored three unanswered goals to carry momentum into the second half of the season series. The final two games of the season between the Devils and Islanders will take place in Newark.
New Jersey May Have Figured Out The Islanders, Sorokin
The Devils outshot the Islanders 50 to 23 on Saturday night, and it set a potential blueprint for how New Jersey can beat them. New Jersey has struggled for a while now against the Isles, but wearing them down with relentless shots on goal appeared to have helped.
It is only a one-game sample as of Sunday morning. But landing 14, 18, and 16 shots in regulation, plus two in overtime, forced the Isles to stay on their heels. That will be something to watch when the Devils face the Islanders again on Jan. 16, 2027.
Should they enjoy a repeat performance, it is unlikely to see New Jersey let the Islanders embark on such a large scoring run in the near future. That said, the Devils can’t revert to the team they were before while playing the Islanders — especially when the stakes rise in the 2027 calendar year.
Devils Finally End Embarrassing Trend in Dramatic Islanders Victory