r when fellow American Jamie Hampton withdrew from their semifinal

NEWARK, N.J. -- With the New Jersey Devils fighting for a playoff spot, Jon Merrill picked the perfect time to score his first NHL goal. The rookie defenceman connected 2:34 into overtime, and the Devils snapped a two-game skid with a 2-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Friday night. "You always dream of this kind of stuff when youre a little kid," the 22-year-old Merrill said. "After 20 games went by and I hadnt scored, I think those dreams went away a little bit. I knew it would come when it came. Tonight was a good opportunity." The goal came in Merrills 31st NHL game and was set up by Adam Henrique winning a battle in the corner and Michael Ryder getting the puck and finding Merrill all alone above the left circle for an uncontested shot against Ilya Bryzgalov. "I saw that four guys kind of collapsed on Ryds," Merrill said. "I was calling for it and he made a great play. I was walking in all alone and fortunately it went in." The win was the second in six games for New Jersey (2-2-2), and it ended a slide that saw the Devils lose the last two games in overtime after giving up the lead late in the third period. "It was awesome for him to get his first goal in overtime," said Henrique, who might have gotten away with a holding-the-stick penalty just before the goal. "Its such an important win for the team. Thats one hes going to remember for the rest of his career." Cory Schneider made 19 saves and Andrei Loktionov scored in regulation for the Devils, who play Saturday night at Washington in their final game before the Olympic break. Taylor Hall had the goal for the Oilers, who lost for only the second time in seven games (5-1-1). Ilya Bryzgalov made 22 saves for Edmonton, which wont play again until Feb. 27. "We found different ways to get points in this stretch," defenceman Justin Schultz said. "We got some solid goaltending. Weve improved our game against these teams that are battling for playoff spots." The Devils hit three posts in the game, with Ryder clanging a shot off the crossbar with 9:20 to play. Both teams went for the win in the final minutes of regulation. Henrique had two chances in close with just more than 4 minutes to go, and defenceman Andrew Ference and Matt Hendricks had chances for Edmonton a minute later. Schneider stopped a chance in close by Jordan Eberle early in overtime. With the Devils struggling to score, coach Pete DeBoer shook up his lines for the game and that led to the teams first goal. Loktionov, who was put at centre on Jaromir Jagrs line, opened the scoring at 11:01 with his first goal since Dec. 4. Jagr and defenceman Bryce Salvador set up the goal. Jagr carried the puck into the Oilers zone and found Salvador on the other side of the ice. He skated toward Bryzgalov and sent a cross-ice pass to a wide-open Loktionov for a shot into an open net. Jagrs assist was the 1,039th of his career, putting him one behind Marcel Dionne for ninth in NHL history. The public address announcer had not finished giving out the assists when Edmonton tied the game 29 seconds later. Hall skated the puck into the Devils end and worked a perfect give-and-go with Nail Yakupov for his 20th goal of the season. Schneider never had a chance to stop the shot into an open net. New Jersey had plenty of opportunities to take the lead in the second period. Devils defenceman Marek Zidlicky hit the post on a power-play shot and Ryane Clowe hit a post on a breakaway after an Oilers turnover. Mark Faynes shot from the point was past Bryzgalov and heading into the net when Ference swept it away from the crease. NOTES: Schultz played in his 100th NHL game. ... Martin Brodeur has been the Devils backup goalie the past five games. He has not played since giving up six goals in two periods during the outdoor game against the New York Rangers at Yankee Stadium. ... Devils D Anton Volchenkov missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury. ... Russian Olympian Anton Belov did not play on the road trip. Philadelphia Eagles Jerseys . Louis Cardinals won the World Series last season, but after losing first baseman Albert Pujols to free agency and manager Tony LaRussa to retirement, they opened the 2012 season in 12th spot in the TSN. Nick Foles Jersey . Venus Williams advanced to the ASB Classic final in Auckland on a walkover when fellow American Jamie Hampton withdrew from their semifinal Friday with a right hip injury. http://www.theeaglesshoponline.com/Youth-Herman-Edwards-Eagles-Jersey/ . He says he will have the operation Wednesday and be ready in time for training camp in September. Bernier missed five games in March due to the injury. Seth Joyner Jersey . -- Kansas City Royals right-hander Luke Hochevar will have Tommy John surgery that will sideline the pitcher for the season. Tommy McDonald Jersey . There was little fanfare, though, when the Yankees captain was taken out of his final regular-season Subway Series game in the eighth inning. Jeter watched the last four outs from the bench, pulled off the field during a double switch Thursday night as the Yankees held off the Mets 1-0.Daniel Ricciardo will run Renaults upgraded engine in his Red Bull car at this weekends Monaco GP, with Spanish GP-winning team-mate Max Verstappen staying with the older version. Renault have decided to bring forward the introduction of their new unit by one race after a successful Barcelona test, although they are not yet in a position to fit new engines to all four cars on their roster.Debate over which of Red Bulls drivers would be given the new engine for Monaco swirled over recent days, given Ricciardo is their lead runner in the championship but Verstappen won on his debut for the team last time out in Spain. Sky Sports News HQ understands Ricciardo will run the upgraded unit in Monaco. Meanwhile, Kevin Magnussen will use the one unit available for Renaults works team.Asked how the team decided he would be given the new spec, Ricciardo joked: It was a history test, basically, and seeing as Im older than Max that was easier to win! Renault are expecting a performance uplift of up to half a second on certain tracks from their upgrades after making significant modifications to the combustion system.Monaco is one of the least engine-dependent circuits on the calendar, meaning a bigger performance uplift should be felt on forthcoming tracks such as Canada and Austria.Monaco GP talking pointsIt will make the ICE more powerful but also efficient, leading to a gain of around half a second per lap, Renaults Remi Taffin said last week. Weve used a small proportion of our token allocation for this upgrade.Armed with the new engine, Ricciardo is aiming to bounce back from the disappointment of losing out on victory at Barcelona, having led Verstappen for the majority of the race before Red Bull split their strategies. Sky Sports News HQs Craig Slater takes you around the streets of Monte Carlo as it prepares for the Monaco Grand Prix Im over it now, Ricciardo told SSNHQ.dddddddddddd We had the test on Tuesday and then I was on the simulator on Wednesday, so I had a bit of time to go through it all with the team between sessions. Its done.I couldnt be happier coming here to this track to let off some steam. This is the place to do it, so Im very happy to be here for the race this weekend.Having ended their 30-race victory drought, Red Bull are optimistic of a strong showing relative to world champions Mercedes at F1s showpiece event.When is the Monaco GP on Sky?Verstappen, who starred on his Monaco debut for Toro Rosso last year before crashing into the back of Romain Grosjean, said: We won the last one but, still, you have to be realistic. Mercedes will be strong but I think we can be quite close.Monaco is always very interesting, as you could also see last year - even though I created a bit of that! We will see, I think the car will be quite strong here. Also See: Monaco GP talking points Can Lewis end Monaco woes? 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