ST. JOHN’S, NL — The Albany Devils fought back but could not push past the St. John’s IceCaps as they fell 5-4 Saturday at Mile One Centre. The IceCaps improve their record to 25-23-7-1 and the Devils slipped to 31-24-1-1.
Brett Lernout got St. John’s on the board early at just 3:58 of the first period. Julien Brouillette and Yannick Veilleux were credited with the assists.
Reece Scarlett tied the game at 10:52 of the first with his fourth goal of the year as he threw a shot on net through traffic from the top of the circle. Luke Gazdic provided the lone assist and the screen on the St. John’s goaltender, Yann Danis.
The score remained tied until 10:53 of the second period when Charles Hudon got his second goal in as many games against the Devils to push the score to 2-1 in favor of the IceCaps. Chris Terry and Zach Redmond got the assists.
At 15:20 of the second period, former Devil Stefan Matteau extended the lead to 3-1. Terry and Veilleux each picked up their second assists of the night on the play.
In the first minute of the third period, Gazdic netted a rebound for his first goal of the season to cut the lead to just one. The goal was assisted by Ben Thomson who took the initial shot.
At 9:45 of the third period, Jacob MacDonald scored to tie the game at three. His tally was assisted by Kevin Rooney and Reece Scarlett. Shortly after at 13:14, Nick Lappin was able to bang home a rebound off of a Karl Stollery shot to give the Devils the lead. Stollery got credited with the only assist.
Just over two minutes later Hudon got his second goal of the game at 15:07 of the period to tie the game back up. Zach Redmond got the lone assist. Just 33 seconds later, Terry got his third point of the game by blasting a slap shot past Devils netminder Mackenzie Blackwood. Nikita Scherbak got the primary assist and Hudon got his third point of the game with the secondary.
Danis turned away 29 of 33 shots to improve his record to 8-6-3-0. Blackwood stopped 28 of 33 and sees his record fall to 11-9-2.
The Devils travel to Providence Friday for a 7:05 pm puck drop against the Bruins.