lya Kovalchuk followed Zharkov with a power-play strike 57 seconds later as the Devils jumped ahead 2-0 in the opening 5:22. He blasted an Andy Greene feed past Islanders goaltender Kevin Poulin for his team-leading 13th of the season.
Kovalchuk has 351 career goals in his career, but knows the first one is special.
“Hopefully, it’s not going to take him 60 games to get his second one,” Kovalchuk said of Zharkov. “He got a lot of chances, and he played well. He played well as soon as he got called up. He works hard, he makes great defensive plays so he really deserved that one.”