Month: March 2019

The last time the Devils faced the St. Louis Blues was during St. Louis’ hot stretch in February and they lost 8-3. This time out it was a little bit closer, but still the same result: a 3-2 overtime loss at Prudential Center. The Devils still have not beaten the Blues since 2014.

St. Louis is playing for playoff positioning now having backed into a playoff spot last night due to an Arizona loss, despite the Blues losing to the Rangers and not gaining the point they needed to get in on their own.

The Devils roster was largely the same as last night in Detroit. Sami Vatanen missed a third straight game due to illness. Kurtis Gabriel and Egor Yakovlev were the scratches.

The difference in the lineup was in goal. Cory Schneider got the start tonight as he continues to alternate starts with Mackenzie Blackwood. Speaking of Cory, he was named the New Jersey chapter of the Professional Hockey Writer’s Association’s nominee for the Bill Masterton Trophy. He mentioned that it is strange to him due to not having to fight a life-threatening illness or anything like last year’s winner Brian Boyle went through. However, his fighting back through injury with grace and dignity to get back to his normal form was enough for him to truly deserve the nomination.

Tonight, Cory made 24 saves on 27 St. Louis shots for an .889 save percentage on the evening. The Blues countered with Jake Allen who made 25 saves on 27 New Jersey shots for a .926 save percentage.

On special teams, the Devils finished the night 1-for-3 on the power play with a single shot while the Blues were 0-for-1 with no shots on the power play. They did, however, have three shorthanded shots. The Devils had a big kill late in regulation that preserved the 2-2 tie and sent things to overtime.

One interesting note about one of the game’s referees that Steve Cangialosi mentioned on the MSG+ broadcast was that Tim Peel will be retiring at the end of the season as an NHL official. Also of note is that the Devils have brought in Patrik Elias as an assistant coach during the final run of games during the season. Coach John Hynes mentioned in the pregame that Elias is looking to get more into coaching in the Czech Republic and he will be learning as well as teaching with the Devils down the home stretch here.

The game began with the Devils getting a nice scoring chance early on. Allen misplayed a puck in front of his net and Nico Hischier jumped on it, but Allen got a piece of his shot and it sailed up over the crossbar.

St. Louis got on the board first with a goal at 15:09 of the first. Robert Thomas shook off Devils defenseman Connor Carrick behind the Devils’ net and cut back in front, beating Cory on the backhand. Former Devil Pat Maroon and Tyler Bozak had the assists on the goal.

The Blues escaped a power play to start the second period when they cleared the puck over the glass just as time was expiring. No delay of game penalty was assessed as the officials got together and felt that the puck left play after time had expired in the first period.

It would remain 1-0 Blues until just 4:57 into the second period. The Devils were on the power play set up when Jay Bouwmeester took a tripping call against Kyle Palmieri. Off the rush up the left wing, Kenny Agostino dished to Pavel Zacha. Zacha went to the corner and centered to Drew Stafford. Stafford’s initial shot was stopped by Allen, but Allen could not get the rebound and the Devils had tied the game up at one.

The Devils were looking at going down 2-1 late in the second when Jaden Schwartz was looking at an empty net and Kevin Rooney got his stick on the puck, keeping it out of the net and keeping it 1-1.

But St. Louis would get their 2-1 lead anyway. At 15:56 of the second, on a delayed penalty, Bozak shot through a screen and beat Cory with Maroon stationed in front of the Devils’ net. Bouwmeester and Thomas had the assists on the goal.

But, despite the Devils situation, they did not just lie down for the Blues. Joey Anderson scored his third goal of the year when he redirected a Steven Santini shot from the point by Allen. That goal came at 16:52 of the second and the secondary assist went to Travis Zajac.

Following a scoreless third period that included the Devils kill of a Santini hooking penalty late, the game was still tied up at two and headed for OT.

OT was a back-and-forth affair that saw the teams trade 2-on-1s a few times. The game seemed to be headed to a shootout until, with 2.8 seconds remaining, Vince Dunn made a great individual effort to win it for the Blues. He burst through the New Jersey defense and crashed the net, putting it by Cory to give St. Louis the 3-2 victory and the two points.

Dunn would go on to be named the game’s first star while Bozak was the second and Anderson the third.

Both teams finished the game with 27 shots on goal while the Blues won 52-percent of the game’s faceoffs. The Devils finished with more hits (20-13) and blocked shots (24-16) as well as more giveaways (11-6).

Individually, Damon Severson led all Devils skaters with 24:29 of ice time (including 2:57 on the PP and 1:20 on the PK). Leading the forwards was Blake Coleman with 19:25 (2:24 on the power play and 1:12 shorthanded). Shots were led by Anderson with five, hits by Santini with four, blocks by Severson with five and takeaways by Anderson and Rooney with two each.

Next up, the Devils take on their rivals the Rangers on Monday. The Rangers have dominated the season series so far, so a win would be nice against New York. We will, of course, have coverage here for you as well as a post later on tonight regarding the NCAA tournament and WHL playoffs featuring Devils prospects.

It was a big day for hockey in Devils-land with the NCAA Men’s Division I tournament getting underway, the QMJHL playoffs continuing and the Devils themselves taking on the Red Wings in the Motor City.

We begin in Detroit where the Devils got shut out by the Wings, 4-0. This game was more interesting in the battle between the two teams trying to “Lose for Hughes.” This game would have a good impact on the rights to the loser getting better odds in the upcoming Draft Lottery.

On the roster front, the Devils were still without Sami Vatanen and also had Kurtis Gabriel and Egor Yakovlev out as scratches. One note for the Wings was young Jake Chelios – son of former Red Wing Chris – making his NHL debut tonight.

The goaltending situation was a weird one for Detroit. Jonathan Bernier began the game for the Wings, stopping all 21 shots he saw and getting the W (being the goalie of record). He would, however, leave after the second period due to what the team is calling an upper body injury. Jimmy Howard came in for the third period and stopped seven shots as the two goaltenders combined for the shut out. Mackenzie Blackwood went for the Devils, stopping 29-of-32 Detroit shots for a .906 save percentage on the night.

On special teams, both teams were 0-for-1 on the power play. Detroit had a pair of shots on the power play while the Devils had three (all against Bernier) and two shorthanded shots (both against Howard).

The Red Wings got the goal scoring kicked off when Danny DeKeyser scored at the 13:38 mark of the first from Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi. That gave Detroit the 1-0 lead in the first period.

Larkin would put them up 2-0 at 2:21 of the second when he scored his 31st of the season from Bertuzzi and Anthony Mantha. Larkin was named the game’s first star with the goal and the assist.

The Devils pulled Blackwood with a little bit more than two minutes remaining in regulation in an effort to get the game tied up and the Red Wings took advantage when Bertuzzi scored unassisted into the empty net at 17:25 to make it 3-0. Bertuzzi was named the game’s second star with that goal and two assists on the evening.

But the Wings were not done, as Andreas Athanasiou scored his 30th of the season with 18:33 gone in the third to make it 4-0. Martin Frk and DeKeyser had the assists. Athanasiou was the game’s third star as he continued to battle late for his goal even when the game was over.

The Devils got out shot 33-28 and lost 53-percent of the game’s faceoffs. They out hit the Red Wings 44-24 and had more blocks at 13-9. That was also the margin of Devils giveaways to Detroit giveaways (13 for the Devils to the Wings’ nine).

Shots on goal were led by Miles Wood with four. Hits were led by Blake Coleman with eight. Nico Hischier, Connor Carrick and Andy Greene all blocked two shots to lead in that category. Takeaways were led by Kenny Agostino, Coleman, Stefan Noesen, Michael McLeod and Carrick each with one apiece.

Next up, the Devils fly back to Newark tonight to take on the St. Louis Blues at home tomorrow. St. Louis (in part due their loss at the Rangers tonight) are still looking to clinch a playoff spot and the Devils will be looking for some revenge from their visit to St. Louis earlier in the season. That game is at 7 PM tomorrow and we will have coverage of the Devils’ penultimate home game for you right here.

Now off to the Quebec League where the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles stormed back to take a 3-2 series lead in game five by beating the Charlottetown Islanders 4-3 at Eastlink Centre in Charlottetown.

Nikita Alexandrov scored the first goal of the game from Daniel Hardie and Lukaas Cormier on the power play 12:43 into the first period to give the Islanders the early 1-0 lead.

But Cape Breton would get four unanswered (all in the second period) from Shawn Boudrias, Shaun Miller, Derek Gentile and Mitchell Balmas to take the 4-1 lead.

Charlottetown tried to fight back, with Kevin Gursoy scoring at 5:07 of the third (with assists to Hardie and Xavier Bernard) to make it 4-2. Alexandrov scored again less than thirty seconds after that to make it 4-3, but that was as close as the Islanders got.

Alexandrov was named the game’s number one star with two goals while Declan Smith of Cape Breton (two assists) was the second star and Hardie (who assisted on all three Islanders goals) was the third star.

Bernard finished the game with the assist for one point, a minus-2 plus/minus rating, one shot on goal and two penalty minutes – a holding penalty 4:12 into the first that also drew an embellishment minor from the Screaming Eagles’ Miller.

Charlottetown finished the night 1-for-5 on the power play and Cape Breton was 0-for-3. In nets, Kevin Mandolese made 33 saves on 36 shots for Cape Breton while Charlottetown’s Matthew Welsh stopped 21 of 25 shots.

Game six of this series is Sunday, March 31 and takes place at 7 PM ET at Cape Breton with the Screaming Eagles looking to close things out. We will have continuing coverage of that series for you then.

Finally, our tour of the continent takes us to Manchester, New Hampshire for two games featuring Devils prospects in the NCAA Men’s Tournament first round. FIrst up was Reilly Walsh and Harvard taking on UMass.

The Crimson fell in this one, 4-0 with UMass advancing to the next round of the tournament.

UMass got goals from Anthony Del Gaizo, John Leonard and a pair from Brett Boeing to notch the shut out win. Walsh was a minus-1 and had a shot on net in the loss.

Massachusetts was 0-for-3 on the power play while Harvard was 0-for-2. Michael Lackey made 32 saves on 36 shots against while UMass’s Filip Lindberg had a relatively easy night, stopping all 17 Harvard shots he saw in getting the shut out.

UMass will now go on to face another Devils prospect in the quarterfinals as Notre Dame took out Clarkson, 3-2 in overtime to advance.

The Fighting Irish got goals from Cam Morrison, Bobby Nardella and Colin Theisen while Clarkson could only muster one from Haralds Egle and Marly Quince.

Matt Hellickson was a minus-2 with one shot in the game.

In goal, Notre Dame’s Cale Morris made 20 saves on 22 shots by Clarkson. Clarkson’s Jake Kielly was 35-for-39 in net. Clarkson was 0-for-4 on the power play while the Irish were 0-for-3.

As mentioned, Notre Dame will now face off with UMass in the quarterfinals. This game is tomorrow night at 6:30 PM ET. We will have coverage of that one plus Jeremy Davies and Northeastern taking on Cornell tomorrow at 4:30 PM as well. Also tomorrow is game five of the Portland Winterhawks-Spokane Chiefs series in the WHL. In the meantime, have a great weekend everyone!