Devils Survive Habs in Shootout

Jack Hughes had two goals and Yegor Sharangovich had the game-winner as the Devils downed the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 in a shootout at Prudential Center tonight.

It was a wild ride of a game that involved quite a few hit posts and crossbars in addition to some fine goaltending.

The Devils were returning to the friendly confines of the Rock after yet another disappointing road loss in Washington last night.

But there would be a major change in the lineup for tonight. A weapon that the Devils were getting back that they did not have in the first half of the back-to-back.

Yes, after getting injured this past October during a preseason game at the Capitals and having right hip surgery a month or so later in November, Miles Wood made his 2021-22 season debut tonight. He skated on the third line with Jesper Boqvist centering and Nathan Bastian on the right-wing.

Wood had a pretty solid game, not looking like he missed a lot in his 11:46 of total ice time. His first shift in particular was shown isolated on camera by MSG+2 and he showed a lot of good energy and seemed extremely mobile in his skating – something that might be of concern when dealing with something like a hip injury.

He ended up with two penalty minutes on the night (a second period high-sticking penalty). He also recorded a shot on goal, two hits, a blocked shot and a turnover. He got a bit of special teams time (26 seconds on the power play and 32 seconds on the penalty kill) as he begins to really get back into game shape.

Other lineup changes included defenseman Colton White as a healthy scratch and Ty Smith sitting again in favor of Kevin Bahl slotting back in on the third defensive pairing with PK Subban. Mason Geertsen was a healthy scratch up front while Pavel Zacha is still day-to-day and did not play today and Andreas Johnsson was out with a “non-COVID-related illness.”

In goal, the Devils continue to lean heavily on Nico Daws, who made 31 saves on 33 total Montreal shots for a .939 save percentage. He stopped their lone shorthanded shot and all nine of their power play tries. The Habs were 0-for-5 on the power play as a team as the Devils kept giving the league’s 30th ranked power play a lot of chances. At five-versus-five, Daws stopped 23 of Montreal’s 28 shots.

The Canadiens countered with Sam Montembeault. Montembeault made 30 saves on 32 total tries by New Jersey for a night’s work of .938. The Devils did not register a shorthanded shot and Montembeault let in one of their two power play shots (the Devils were 1-for-2 as a team on the man advantage as well). At five-on-five, he made 31 saves on 36 shots.

As noted, both goalies got a lot of help from their red metallic friends as well.

This was the first meeting in over two years between these teams in Newark and the first meeting since Martin St. Louis took over behind the Canadiens bench.

The Devils wore camo-inspired warmup jerseys pregame in honor of Military Appreciation Night.

The Habs started with a bang and Daws was sharp early. He stopped Nick Suzuki right off the bat on a great chance for Suzuki.

The Devils would counter with great chances. Midway through the period, Damon Severson sprang Jesper Bratt for a breakaway off of a faceoff deep in the Devils zone. Bratt was stopped by Montembeault, however.

But New Jersey would break through before the end of the first frame when Jack Hughes connected with 44 seconds remaining in the first period.

On this goal, the puck was in deep in Montreal’s zone and Montembeault came slightly out in front of his net to play it. Sharangovich, hard in on the forecheck, skated in and put pressure on the Montreal goalie as Sharangovich curled away from him.

This caused Montembeault to panic as he had to make a very quick decision on what to do with the puck.

He ended up turning it over to Hughes, who was coming up the right side. He got the pass and just threw it back on net, scoring to make it 1-0 just as we were headed into the first intermission.

The goal was officially unassisted but Sharangovich played a huge part in helping to create it.

The Devils doubled that lead later on in the second period. It began when the Habs’ Josh Anderson was called for a penalty which put the Devils up a man at the 12:21 mark.

Hughes was all over here as well.

Late in the power play, he hit the post and it seemed that Montreal would kill things off with that being the Devils’ best chance.

But, at the 14:16 mark, with six seconds left on the penalty, the Devils got the puck to Severson at the point. Severson then hit Bratt on the near side. Bratt found a cross seam to Hughes, who simply tapped the puck into the open side of the cage on the far side.

The Devils utilized great puck retrieval as they kept play going in the Montreal zone and pinned the Habs in. The Canadiens’ PK unit ended up spending more than a full minute on the ice by the time the goal was scored.

It was Hughes’ second of the game.

But the Habs remained in the game and hung on showing that they were not the pushovers that the Devils played last month. That began to pay off for them at 15:35 of the second period when Jonas Siegenthaler was called for interference to put Montreal up a man for two minutes.

Chris Wideman got the puck late in the power play at the point. He moved it to Jesse Ylonen at the far half wall. Ylonen took a shot that was headed wide of net. Lucky for him, Josh Anderson was in front of Daws and was able to get his stick on it and tip it in to cut the Devils lead to 2-1.

Officially, the goal came at 17:36 so the power play had just expired, meaning Anderson’s goal was an even strength goal. For all intents and purposes, because the power play was over only for a second, there was no way that Siegenthaler could get back on the ice and into the play that quickly so the Devils were still pretty much shorthanded.

Either way, that was how we would head into the third period.

That third period featured some great goaltending including Daws making a great save midway through on Suzuki. It was off a scramble in front of the goal mouth and Suzuki had the entire upper half of the net to shoot at. Daws just got his glove on it and the puck sailed over the top of the net.

The Canadiens, however, would end up with the equalizer when Montembeault was pulled just under a minute to go in regulation for the extra attacker.

It would pay off when, with 41 seconds left in the game, Rem Pitlick scored to tie it and force overtime.

The Habs won a faceoff in the Devils zone cleanly and worked the puck around the horn until it eventually got to Cole Caufield. Caufield passed low to Christian Dvorak, who sent to Pitlick at the far side of the net. Pitlick simply tapped the puck in to tie the game at two.

When time expired, the teams were off to OT, the Devils looking to improve their OT record to 6-1 while the Habs were looking to get to 4-9.

But the posts and crossbars had other ideas.

The first instance occurred when Bratt hit the crossbar about halfway through overtime.

Then, with 53.4 seconds to go in the extra period, the Devils flubbed a pass back towards Daws and Mike Hoffman of the Canadiens jumped on the loose puck. He was off on a breakaway and beat Daws.

The goal was waved off on the ice and the goal light never came on, but play was whistled down so that the play could be reviewed.

Replays showed that the call on the ice was correct: no goal. The shot actually rang off of the inside of both posts and came out after hitting the inside of the near post. It never actually crossed the goal line when it came out.

With that, play was resumed and then Hischier had a chance going the other way. He made a power move cutting in on Montembeault… and hit the left post.

Soon after, the buzzer sounded and it was to a shootout.

Round one began with Tomas Tatar trying too many moves and simply running out of room. Caufield then scored on Daws five-hole.

Bratt scored when he just snapped the puck stick side by Montembeault. Pitlick rounded out the round and converted for the Habs when he used a backhand/forehand move and put the puck in the net before running himself into the post. After a very quick review, the goal counted and it set up round three.

This round began with Hughes using his slick hands to get a shot off and beat Montembeault top shelf. Suzuki then missed wide.

Round four gave us Severson skating in and going to his backhand only to have it poke checked off of his stick by Montembeault. Dvorak was up for the Habs and Daws stopped him.

Round five saw Hischier turned aside by a Montembeault blocker save and Joel Armia hitting the post to deny Montreal the tie.

Round six had the Devils turning back to a defenseman when Dougie Hamilton scored when he snapped a shot along the ice and five-hole to beat Montembeault. That meant it was up to Hoffman to keep the Canadiens in it again. His wrist shot beat Daws glove side to do so and it was on to round seven.

Sharangovich kicked off that round by skating in on the rough ice and just heaving a shot by Montembeault to put the Devils in the lead again. That left the game on Paul Byron’s stick.

On Byron, Daws came up big when he just got a bit of his blocker on a shot that went up and over his net to deny the Canadiens and give the Devils the 3-2 home win.

The Devils were just edged in shots as Montreal outshot them 33-32. New Jersey also did not do very well in the faceoff circle, winning just 40-percent of their draws.

Hischier led the centers with a 52-percent faceoff winning percentage over his 24:11 of total ice time.

In team penalty minutes, the Devils racked up ten while the Canadiens finished with four. The Devils did outhit the Habs 25 to 20 but had less blocked shots as Montreal finished with 16 to the Devils’ 11. Team giveaways saw the Devils with 16 while the Canadiens had ten.

In terms of ice time, Severson led the Devils with a whopping 30:56 of total ice time. Yes, he logged more than a half an hour of ice time over the 65 minutes of play. This included 3:29 on the power play and 6:54 on the penalty kill – both leading times for the defensemen.

Hughes led the forwards in total time with 24:50 (including 3:29 on the power play – which he shared as the forwards leader with Hischier, Bastian and Bratt. They, along with Severson were all on power play unit one). Hischier led the forwards in PK time with 4:44 to go with his 3:29 of power play time (as mentioned) and his total time of 24:11 TOI.

Hughes led the Devils in points with his two goals and in shots on goal with seven. Hamilton led in hits with six. Siegenthaler led in blocks with four. Hughes led in personal giveaways with three and in takeaways with four.

As you can see, Hughes – who was named the game’s first star – was all over the place in this game, just quietly dominating.

Next up, the Devils will not play again until Thursday, March 31 when they visit Boston to take on the Bruins. It is another challenge for the Devils as they face another playoff bound team.

That game is at 7 PM on Thursday and will be shown on MSG+ here in the New York/New Jersey area.

We will have coverage for you following the conclusion of that game.

Until then, enjoy your week everyone!

Backstrom-led Caps Slip Past Devils

The Devils traveled down to DC to meet up with the Washington Capitals for the third and final time this season.

In a rare turn of events, the teams were actually tied in the season series at 1-1. The last time the Devils had won more than one game in Washington came in 2011-12. Should they have defeated the Caps tonight, the 2021-22 Devils would have achieved that feat as well. (Remember the Devils won at Washington in overtime back on January 2 on a Nico Hischier OT winner – also the game that Dougie Hamilton got hit in the jaw with a shot and injured his jaw.)

That was going to be a tall feat considering this year’s edition of the Devils have just eight victories on the road so far.

Instead, the Devils were edged 4-3 following goals by both Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin.

Lineup-wise, defensemen Colton White and Kevin Bahl were healthy scratches while forward Mason Geertsen was also a healthy scratch. Forward Pavel Zacha remains day-to-day with his injury. The only change to the lineup saw Ty Smith slot in on defense – on the third pairing with PK Subban.

AJ Greer remained in the lineup on the left-wing on the fourth line with Nathan Bastian on the right side and Michael McLeod centering.

In goal, Nico Daws was back in and made 18 saves on 22 total Caps shots for an .818 save percentage. On the power play, he made two saves on three total shots for Washington. The Capitals were 1-for-2 as a team on power play opportunities. At even strength, he made 16 saves on the 19 shots he saw.

The Capitals went with Vitek Vanecek between the pipes. He turned aside 35 of the 38 total Devils shots he saw for a .921 save percentage on the night. On special teams, he saved all three shorthanded shots and all three power play shots the Devils mustered. As a team, the Devils were 0-for-2 on the power play. At five-on-five, he made 29 saves on 32 shots from New Jersey.

Vanecek was a career 5-0 versus the Devils coming into tonight’s start.

The Caps were sporting a familiar uniform and a new/familiar face back in their lineup. Their uniforms were the navy blue set with the big “W” on the front (they debuted them at an outdoor game – I think the Stadium Series – a few years ago) and the face was none other than former Capital-turned-Devil Marcus Johansson still in his trademark number 90. Johansson was reacquired by Washington at the trade deadline from the Seattle Kraken. He is already slotting in on the right-wing of the top line with Alex Ovechkin on the left and Evgeny Kuznetsov centering.

The start of the game was delayed a bit as the Capitals were honoring Nicklas Backstrom in the pregame. Backstrom recently recorded his 1,000th career NHL point (an assist, appropriately enough). That would actually factor into the flow of the game later on in the night.

The teams played to a scoreless first period where the Devils outshot the Caps 10-7.

The best chance of the period for either team came just as time was running down in the frame. The Devils were killing off a power play and Jesper Bratt hit the post and the outside of the goal cage with Vanecek totally beaten. Bratt was shooting from a sharp angle and was unable to convert for the New Jersey shorthanded goal.

The Devils would, however, take just 55 seconds into the second period to finally grab a lead.

That goal saw Dawson Mercer gain the Caps zone through the middle of the ice. He took a shot and the rebound was collected by Yegor Sharangovich, who saw Jack Hughes coming on the ice from the New Jersey bench. Hughes went to the high slot immediately and Hughes beat Vanecek with the Washington goaltender down.

The Devils held that lead for a little less than two-minutes when, at 2:47 gone by, Tom Wilson tied things for the Capitals.

That happened when Smith turned the puck over in the Caps zone to John Carlson. The Devils were caught in the middle of a change and Carlson was able to spring Conor Sheary, who was In on a rush with Wilson. Wilson was fed and beat Daws on a one-timer to make it 1-1.

Wilson – and this is just one of the greatest examples of the Capitals’ amazing depth that they have amassed over the last decade or so – notched his 20th goal of the season with that one.

McLeod and Nick Jensen would square off in a fight at the 6:12 mark of the second when Jensen sparked things by elbowing McLeod prior to the fight. He would get an extra two for the elbow while McLeod received an extra two minutes for roughing.

The Devils would take the lead back over prior to the first intermission when Damon Severson found the back of the net at 7:17 gone by.

This one started on a faceoff win in the Washington zone. Jesper Boqvist won a faceoff cleanly back to Ryan Graves who quickly moved it to his defensive partner in Severson.

Severson made a nifty move to draw Anthony Mantha in towards him and bite that he was going to go one way with the puck. Mantha bought it hook, line and sinker and Severson was able to step around him, and with tons of room, let loose a bomb from the point that beat Vanecek cleanly to put the Devils back in front at 2-1.

That was Severson’s tenth goal of the season and the 50th of his career, which moved him even in fourth place all-time in goal scoring among Devils defensemen. He is now tied with Joe Cirella – although that could actually be the franchise mark, not the Devils mark, as you will recall that Cirella had a handful of goals that he scored while the team was in Colorado. I will hope to clarify that by tomorrow night’s post.

The Devils would take that 2-1 lead into the second period largely due to a great back checking effort by Hughes midway through second period.

Kuznetsov was attempting a wraparound with the entire left side of the goal cage open. Hughes made the effort to get back and get his stick on the puck before it went in, preventing the goal.

But while the Devils were looking good heading into the third period, the Caps would end up dominating the final frame.

It began when Washington tied the game 2:08 into the period.

A delayed penalty was about to be called on the Devils allowing the Capitals to get Vanecek off the ice for the extra attacker. With the extra man, Connor McMichael passed from behind the Devils net to Carlson, who one-touched a pass to Justin Schultz. While this was happening, McMichael had snuck around to the far post. Schultz passed back to him and he tapped the puck in to tie the game at two.

Then came the second time Nicklas Backstrom would delay the game – though through no actual fault of his own.

At 6:58, the Devils attempted to clear their own zone while the puck was bouncing wildly around. Anthony Mantha was able to guide it to Backstrom. Backstrom collected the puck with his skate to his stick, shot and scored to give Caps a 3-2 lead.

And with that came a torrent of foam apples raining down from the crowd at the Capital One Arena. Since Backstrom was being honored for his 1,000th point and being that most of those points are assists (Backstrom is the Caps’ all-time leader in assists) and being that in hockey slang, assists are known as “apples,” the fans were given foam apples upon their entry.

Those apples were now being used as projectiles as they rained down on the rink.

It was a sight not dissimilar to a minor league “chuck a puck” event but with the help of players from both teams, the ice crew was able to get things cleaned up in reasonable amount of time and the game continued on.

Washington would end up putting things away on the power play at the 11:48 mark of the third when Ovechkin got on the scoresheet.

It began when Smith was called for hooking on Kuznetsov at 10:40 gone.

A little over a minute into the man advantage, Backstrom moved the puck around the half wall to Kuznetsov down low. He whipped it to Ovechkin in his “office” at the near side and Ovechkin buried it for the power play goal to make it 4-2 Caps.

It was actually more fitting that Backstrom got that assist (as I think he and Ovi would both tell you) than the goal he scored earlier.

The Devils were now down two goals and would pull Daws for a sixth skater with about 2:30 left in regulation. They would then use a stoppage to be able to call their timeout with about 1:20 to go in the game.

It would pay off a bit as, with 31 seconds remaining in the game, Nico Hischier skated up the left-wing side and connected on a cross-ice pass to Hughes. Hughes snapped off a shot and Bratt was there on the doorstep to put the rebound in to make it 4-3.

But that would end up as our final as the Devils could muster no more.

And with that, while Nico would record the assist on Bratt’s goal, his streak of straight games with two points was ended at four.

The Devils outshot Washington 38-22 and won 57-percent of the game’s faceoffs.

McLeod was again the clubhouse leader among the centers in faceoff percentage with 83-percent of his personal draws won. Keep in mind though that McLeod only playe a total of 6:08 as his ice time has been cut back a lot of late.

Hughes actually led the forwards in ice time with 23:33 played and won 38-percent of his faceoffs while Hischier won 57-percent over 21:19 of ice time logged. Boqvist rounded out the centers by winning 60-percent of his faceoffs over 12:46 of total ice.

Each team accumulated 11 penalty minutes as a team while the Caps outhit the Devils 25-20. The Caps also led in blocked shots with 18 to eight. Team turnovers saw the Caps with ten while the Devils had one less at nine.

Severson led all Devils skaters in total ice time with 25:01 logged (including 3:05 on the power play and 2:46 shorthanded – which also led the defensemen in both special teams categories).

As for the forwards, Hughes led in total time with 23:33 as noted (this included 3:10 on the PP and 11 seconds on the PK). Hischier led in shorthanded time with 1:50 to go with his 3:05 of power play time and 21:19 of total time on ice.

Hughes led in points for the Devils with a goal and an assist for two points total. Hischier, Mercer, Bratt, Severson and PK Subban each lead in shots on goal with four. Bastian and AJ Greer led in hits with three each. Mercer, McLeod, Greer, Hughes, Dougie Hamilton, Smith, Seveson and Jonas Siegenthaler each led in blocks with one apiece. Personal giveaways were led by Mercer with two while personal turnover recoveries were also led by Mercer with three on that side of the ledger.

Next up, it’s a very quick turnaround. Back up the coast to Newark to host the Montreal Canadiens tomorrow at 7PM.

It will be the first meeting between the teams since the Habs’ disastrous outing against the Devils in Montreal back in February.

That game will be broadcast on MSG+2 and we will have coverage for your right here tomorrow night following the game.

Until then, enjoy your Sunday afternoon everyone!