Pavel Zacha scored on a power play with 7:27 remaining, and the New Jersey Devils snapped a seven-game home losing streak with a 2-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Monday night.
Adam Henrique also scored a power-play goal, Mike Cammalleri had two assists and Cory Schneider made 22 saves as the Devils won at the Prudential Center for the first time since Jan. 2. New Jersey is 3-0-1 since the All-Star break.
Tyler Ennis scored for the Sabres, and Robin Lehner made 37 saves.
Zacha's game-winner was reviewed after Buffalo coach Dan Bylsma argued Henrique interfered with Lehner. Cammalleri took a shot from the right point and Lehner could not glove the high shot because Henrique appeared to hit the base of his glove with his stick. The referees looked at it on replay and let it stand.
Badly outplayed in the first two periods, the Sabres tied it on a bad-angle goal. Ennis took a shot from the corner along the goal line and Schneider had it hit off his stick and go in the net with 11:21 left in regulation.
Buffalo nearly took the lead about two minutes later when Sam Reinhart had a deflection hit the post.
New Jersey went on the power play when Evander Kane was called for high-sticking Taylor Hall. Zacha got his sixth goal.
Local
Kane also was in the penalty box when Henrique got his fourth goal in the last five games.
Cammalleri sent the puck to Henrique behind the net and the center banked it off the skate of defenseman Cody Franson past Lehner, who shut out Ottawa in his last start.
Lehner kept the Sabres in the game in the first two periods, stopping 28 shots, including two close-in attempts by Joseph Blandisi and good chances by Zacha and Sergey Kalinin. The goaltender was at his best in the second period when the Devils matched their season high with 19 shots.
NOTES: New Jersey was 0-5-2 in its losing streak at the Prudential Center. ... Devils D Kyle Quincey was sidelined by an upper-body injury, only the third game he has missed. ... D Karl Stollery was recalled from Albany of the AHL. ... The Sabres signed D Justin Falk to a $600,000, one-year contract extension and claimed F Derek Grant off waivers from Nashville. He was assigned to Rochester of the AHL. ... New Jersey's other 19-shot period was against Carolina on Nov. 18.
UP NEXT
Sabres: Host San Jose on Tuesday night.
Devils: Have their league-mandated, five-day break before playing host on Sunday to San Jose, which will be ending a four-game East Coast swing.
