After a four-game losing streak after a 3-1 win against the Ottawa Senators on October 17th, the Devils finally broke the streak when they defeated the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday, October 27th at the Prudential Center. Stefan Noesen scored two goals for New Jersey, sparking a four-goal second period. Jack Hughes, Paul Cotter, Nico Hischier, and Erik Haula also all scored for the Devils to help them secure their 6-2 victory against Anaheim. Brock McGinn and Ryan Strome both scored for the Ducks. The Devils head back out on the road after being home for two games, taking on the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday.
New Jersey Devils Lineup:
Meier – Hischier – Mercer
Palat – Hughes – Bratt
Cotter – Haula – Noesen
MacDermid – Lazar – Tatar
Dillon – Hamilton
Siegenthaler – Kovacevic
Hughes – Pesce
Markstrom
Allen
Anaheim Ducks Lineup:
Zegras – Carlsson – Fabbri
Gauthier – McTavish – Terry
Vantrano – Lundestrom – Killorn
Johnston – Strome – McGinn
Fowler – Zellweger
Dumoulin – Luneau
Mintyukov – Gudas
Reimer
Dostal
Early into the first period at 15:13 after Kurtis MacDermid and Ross Johnston dropped the gloves right off the faceoff – Brock McGinn opened the scoring, giving the Ducks a 1-0 lead from the top of the left face-off circle when he fired a snap shot past Jacob Markstrom after receiving a pass from Troy Terry, who drove into the Devils’ zone with the puck before passing it over.
Jack Hughes got the party started at 18:44 of the middle frame, scoring his third goal of the season during a delayed penalty and Jacob Markstrom pulled for an extra attacker. Nico Hischier skated into Anaheim’s zone with the puck and passed it to Dawson Mercer, who made a back pass to Timo Meier, who went cross-ice to Hughes… he shot from the slot and then tapped in the rebound to tie it to 1-1. Giving the Devils their first lead of the night – Stefan Noesen took a pass from Jonathan Kovacevic, who received the puck from Jonas Siegenthaler. Noesen made it 2-1 from the high slot on a wrist shot. Later into the second at 2:37, Noesen struck his second goal of the game to push it to 3-1 on the power play off a pass from Jesper Bratt and lifted the puck into the right corner from the slot. Paul Cotter gave New Jersey a 4-1 lead very soon after with 1:11 on the clock for his sixth goal of the season when he fired a wrister at the right post past James Reimer.
Nico Hischier made it a 5-1 lead for the Devils early into the third at 18:11 when he took a pass from Dougie Hamilton, who came around from the back of New Jersey’s net and sent the puck far up to Hischier. He scored off a rush down his left wing with a wrist shot for his ninth goal of the season. With 6:50 on the clock – Ryan Strome scored for Anaheim to pull them within 5-2 from the slot on a wrister. Erik Haula got the puck after Brendan Dillon sent it down the ice and scored on a breakaway, sending a snapshot into the Ducks’ net for the 6-2 final with little time remaining in regulation.
Stefan Noesen on the team, the 6-2 victory, and goals: “Sticking to a process. We haven’t had too much time to really practice. With Prague and everything else, the schedule’s been crazy, but we learn every day, we come to the rink, we and he expects us to be at our best… Tonight we were pretty good. There are probably a few things we want to clean up overall, but we’re at the end of the game and just trying to get on,” – “Bratter made a great play… I was open trying to gain some momentum and trying to get into some good ice, and they didn’t always go in – tonight, they did. So, take it when you can.”
Paul Cotter on the Devils’ home win and what impressed him about the all-around game: “Very important. We need to be better at home. I mean, that’s self-explanatory, but I thought we did a really good job. We played well, we did well, systematic-wise, and so that ultimately is going to launch us into the road trip. We’ve been pretty good on the road for whatever reason, so we got to keep that up,” – “I thought we did great. Breakouts were clean, which obviously, we’re spending less time in our D-zone. The things we worked on today, the past couple of days – just certain o-zone plays that make us sustain pressure. Like I said before, once we do that, it makes it a lot easier for us to not play defense because we’re in the o-zone.”
Notes:
– Dawson Mercer, Dougie Hamilton, and Jonas Siegenthaler all recorded two assists… Mercer became the first Devils player since Blake Coleman (two goals, two assists) on November 28th, 2019, to record multiple assists on their birthday.
– With his goal during this game, Nico Hischier leads the NHL with the most goals so far this season (nine goals). He also has four goals during a three-game goal streak.
– Jesper Bratt extended his assist streak to five games.
– Jacob Markstrom made a total of 24 saves for New Jersey.
– Curtis Lazar did not return after the second period due to sustaining a lower-body injury after taking a hit from Radko Gudas.
– Ryan Strome picked up both a goal and an assist… Troy Terry recorded an assist to extend his point streak to seven games (four goals, three assists)
– James Reimer made a total of 28 saves for Anaheim.
– The Anaheim Ducks is the last team in the League with 18 goals in their eight games, averaging 2.25 per game.
