The Seattle Kraken played against the New Jersey Devils in New Jersey at The Rock on Monday, February 12th. Tyler Toffoli opened the scoring late in the first period, that being the Devils’ first goal with the man advantage in 24 opportunities (nine games). Nico Daws started in the net, his first start since January 25th for New Jersey.
Kraken lineup against the Devils:
Tatar – Beniers – Eberle
Schwartz – Wennberg – McCann
Tolvanen – Gourde – Bjorkstrand
Tanev – Yamamoto – Burakovsky
Dunn – Larsson
Oleksiak – Borgen
Dumoulin – Schultz
Daccord
Grubauer
Devils lineup against the Kraken:
Palat – Hischier – Bratt
Hughes – Haula – Toffoli
Meier – Lazar – Mercer
Holtz – Nosek – Bastian
Bahl – Nemec
Hughes – Marino
Hatakka – Miller
Daws
Schmid
Tyler Toffoli struck his 22nd goal of the season late into the first period at 6:24. Toffoli scored on the power play from above the circles with a slap shot. Both Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier got the assists on Toffoli’s power-play goal.
Just 48 seconds into the second period, Jack Hughes scored his first goal to make it a 2-0 lead for New Jersey since being back from his upper-body injury that caused him to miss 11 games. Erik Haula had stolen the puck from Matty Beniers in Seattle’s zone and passed it to Hughes, who skated below the left circle, banking a shot in off Joey Daccord’s mask. At 15:06, Dawson Mercer pushed the lead to 3-0 with his 15th goal of the season, in front on a rebound. It appeared Simon Nemec net one to get a 4-0 lead, but Seattle challenged it for goaltender interference… The score remained a 3-0 score for the remainder of the second period.
Will Borgen made sure the Kraken didn’t get shutout by striking his second goal of the season in the third period. Borgen scored from the top of the right circle with a wrist shot to make it a 3-1 final.
Jack Hughes on the Devils’ 3-1 win and his goal: “We obviously played pretty well and Dawsy (Nico Daws) played very well, so I think an encouraging one for sure,” – “Obviously a really good play by him, backtracking and stealing the puck and getting it over to me. So it’s a good play and a good play out of him.”
Hughes on the Devils’ next game, taking on the Nashville Predators: “We haven’t really looked at them yet, but a win would be nice. I know we’ve been struggling big time back-to-back. So I think if we could get a win tomorrow night, maybe we can keep it rolling and have some really good momentum.”
Nico Daws on the Devils’ win and how he played tonight: “Everybody played really hard. It was a really good defensive gift from us. They didn’t give up a whole lot, so I think that was awesome,” – “I felt pretty good. A little sticky tonight, which is good. It’s just good to get back to my game and feel good again.”
Notes:
– Jack Hughes recorded his first two points since coming back from missing 11 games. He assisted Tyler Toffoli’s goal with Nico Hischier, and he scored in the middle frame.
– Vitek Vanecek was out due to injury and illness… Nico Daws took his place in the net and made 27 saves for New Jersey.
– John Marino left in the first period, but not for long, as he came back before Toffoli scored.
– Will Borgen scored the lone goal for the Seattle Kraken
– Joey Daccord made 35 saves for Seattle
– Brian Dumoulin left the game in the first period due to a lower-body injury on a check from Timo Meier along the boards.
