The injury-riddled New Jersey Devils put together a solid performance on Saturday evening to end the Florida Panthers’ nine-game win streak. The early lead and stellar goaltending from Nico Daws earned the Devils a 4-1 victory and two big points in their push for the playoffs. With the win, New Jersey improved to 22-15-3. The Panthers dropped to 27-13-2.
Game Recap
Period One
The Devils scored early, at 3:50, with Alexander Holtz’s tenth goal this season. Simon Nemec and Curtis Lazar added assists on the play.
They continued to pressure, and at 14:45, Jesper Bratt doubled the lead with a hard drive to the net to beat Sergei Bobrovsky. Michael McLeod tallied the lone assist.
In the dying seconds of play, Daws came up with a huge save on Oliver Ekman-Larsson to preserve the two-goal lead heading into intermission.
The Devils outshot the Panthers 12-8 in the first twenty minutes.
Period Two
The Devils extended their lead to three just 3:51 into the middle frame. Erik Haula beat Bobrovsky’s five-hole with a quick shot from the face-off dot. Nico Hischier added an assist with the zone entry and a slick drop pass to set Haula up.
After Haula’s goal, the Panthers surged and forced Daws to make numerous saves. The Devils kept a lot of shots to the outside, but Daws was able to absorb any dangerous attempts.
With just over two minutes remaining in the period, the Devils took the first penalty of the game. Despite some early clears by the penalty killers, the Panthers were able to cash in at 19:27. Sam Reinhart buried a between-the-legs pass from Matthew Tkachuk to cut the lead to two. Brandon Montour added a secondary assist.
The Devils were outshot 13-5 in the period.
Period Three
The onslaught of pressure continued from Florida in the third. The Devils played a sound defensive period and made some big plays to hold the Panthers off the board.
With the Panthers’ net empty, John Marino iced the game for the Devils at 19:41. His goal was unassisted.
Florida outshot the Devils 37-22 in the game.
Takeaways
This was a gritty effort from the Devils to gain two points against one of the hottest teams in the NHL. It was promising to see the effort from the Tampa Bay game carry over to this one, and the Devils were able to finish the job. They played a defensively sound game that limited breakaways and held a lot of shots to the outside. They also made smart plays to eliminate turnovers in dangerous areas.
Even more encouraging was the play of young goaltender Daws. The Devils have desperately needed some consistently good goaltending to help them out, and Daws did exactly that. He saved 36 of 37 shots for a .973 SV%. He also saved some high-danger attempts, posting a 2.1 GSAx. If he can continue to perform at the same level, he will provide the Devils with some stability in the net, something they haven’t had all season.
Next Up
The Devils look to finish their road trip strong on Monday afternoon when they take on the Boston Bruins at TD Garden.
The Bruins sit atop the Atlantic division and are 6-1-3 in their last 10 games, the most recent result being an overtime win against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night.
This is the third and final meeting between the Devils and Bruins this season. The Devils defeated Boston 2-1 in overtime on December 13. The Bruins took down the Devils 5-2 on December 30.
Puck drop is set for 1:00 p.m. on Monday.
ITR 31: Let Them Fight – Inside The Rink
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