New Jersey finally shook off its losing streak, but the Devils are not out of the woods yet. Their 27 points put them fourth in the Atlantic Division and two points out of the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Devils face off against the struggling Ottawa Senators tonight at the Prudential Center. Gametime is 7 p.m. and is available on MSG Plus 2.
New Jersey won it's first game in December, defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2, in overtime Tuesday night. David Clarkson paced the offense, scoring two goals. His game-winning goal came at 2:40 into the overtime period, sending the Devils to the win. The Devils moved to 7-1 in games decided after regulation, and 2-0 in overtime games.
The win was desperately needed for a team that dropped three straight road games.
"It was big," Clarkson told Tom Gulitti of The Bergen Record after Tuesday's win. "It feels good and no matter how we got it we need to get winning right now."
"We've been a little bit fragile," DeBoer told Gulitti after the win. "We think we've been playing well, but we haven't been getting rewarded and we needed a win. It didn't matter what it looked like or how it went, but we needed two points. It was nice to get that and, hopefully, we can build on it."
New Jersey is flirting close to the .500 mark. They haven't hit that mark since November 5, 2011 when they beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-3.
After going 5-1-1 to close out November, Ottawa has struggled, winning just one of their last four games. The Washington Capitals were the latest to beat the Senators, winning 5-3 last night. Ottawa jumped out to a 2-1 lead, carrying it into the third period. But three straight Capitals goals sent Ottawa to yet another loss. Erik Condra, Nick Foligno and Milan Michalek scored in the loss. Craig Anderson stopped 39 shots.
Tonight is the first of four meetings between the Devils and Senators. Ottawa won three of the four meetings last season.