It took just one goal to decide Monday’s preseason contest between the Bruins and Devils, and unfortunately for Jim Montgomery’s club, it did not come off the stick of a Bruin.

That instead came courtesy of the Devils’ Tomas Tatar, who received a sweet feed from Michael Vukojevic and split Vinni Lettieri and Connor Clifton on his way to a strike through Keith Kinkaid, scored at the 10:55 mark of the opening period.

In a lineup featuring mostly bottom-six forwards or projected bottom-six forwards for the Bruins (that was by design on the part of Montgomery), chances were hard to come by out of the gate, as the B’s accounted for just two of the first eight shots of the game.

But the Bruins slowly but surely seemed to find their offensive rhythm, and their best chance of the middle frame came on a Clifton shot that beat Vitek Vanecek but clanged off the iron.

And though the Bruins were unable to find the equalizing tally in the second frame, they were able to stop the bleeding at one, with help from a veteran move by Johnny Beecher to deny New Jersey’s Alexander Holtz an easy goal on Kinkaid.

The Bruins finally appeared to break through on Vanecek when a seeing-eye shot from Tomas Nosek found the back of the net, but referee Kelly Sutherland quickly motioned for a no-goal, and ultimately ruled against a would-be tally due to A.J. Greer’s in-the-crease contact on the Jersey netminder.

It would be as close as the Bruins got to an even score in this one, as Vanecek turned aside all 24 shots thrown his way by the night’s end.

And in what was a bit of a weird occurrence, the Bruins dominated at the dot with a 69 percent success rate at the faceoff dot, but were hammered on the possession front throughout the majority of this game. It wasn’t until the third period that the Bruins seemed to get back on even footing with the Devils at five-on-five, with a 15-12 shot attempt advantage in the final frame.

The Bruins also dealt with an injury scare in the loss, as Kinkaid departed in the 43rd minute of action after an awkward-looking save. The good news is that Kinkaid did return to the B’s bench before the end of the game, and the cameras even caught him having a chuckle with the staff.

The Bruins are expected to have Tuesday off, and will return to the ice Wednesday night against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

Montgomery and the Bruins are hopeful that Fabian Lysell, who was injured in last Saturday’s preseason head-to-head with the Flyers, will return to action for that contest.

The team is also likely to make some more cuts between tonight and Wednesday.