The Devils wrapped up the 2018 Prospects Challenge this morning in Buffalo. With a 9:30 AM puck drop it was certainly rise and shine time for the players.
And shine they did, defeating the Boston Bruins prospects 6-2. It was the second consecutive game the Devils prospects won by that score, after defeating Pittsburgh 6 to 2 on Saturday.
Boston actually took the early lead, when Valach Marek scored just 5:57 into the game from Senyshyn Zach. That made it 1-0 B’s. However, the Devils would tie things up before the end of the first period. At 14:57, Jeremey Groleau scored from Dylan Seitz and Blake Speers to tie the game moving into the second period.
The Devils would add two more in the second frame. At 7:00 minutes in, Brandon Baddock scored a power play goal from Yegor Shanrangovich and Speers – who finished the game with two assists. The Devils now had a 2-1 lead. Joey Anderson put them up by two when he scored unassisted at 9:29. Boston’s Clifton Connor would score the Bruins’ final goal of the morning at 15:03 of the second from Lauko Jakub to make it 3-2 going into the third.
The third period was all Devils. First, Ryan Schmelzer made it 4-2 when he scored on the power play at 7:01 from Colton White and Fabian Zetterlund.
Following that, Michael McLeod turned it on, scoring two goals within about three minutes of each other. He made it 5-2 when he scored at 10:03 from Schmelzer (his second point of the morning) and Colby Sissons. Then, at 12:55, McLeod struck again to give us our 6-2 final. He scored from Seitz (his second assist of the game) and Marian Studenic.
And that was it. The Devils closed out the Prospects Challenge with a record of two wins and one loss and both of those wins were by 6-2 score lines.
In nets, Akira Schmid went for the Devils and stopped 16 of 18 Boston shots for a .889 save percentage. For the Bruins, Weatherill Dawson saw 28 shots and stopped 22 of them.
On the power play, the Devils were 2-for-4 while going a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
New Jersey will now gear up for training camp beginning on Friday with the first preseason game proper coming on Monday, September 17 when the Rangers come to Prudential Center.