On Thursday, February 6th, the Devils were unable to solve the Vegas Golden Knights’ renewed energy as they fell 3-1, while Vegas put an end to a four-game slump. At the Prudential Center, the Golden Knights have never lost in regulation (4-0-3) and outshot the Devils 40-15. Ondrej Palat managed to find the back of the net for New Jersey, but it unfortunately wasn’t enough to spark a comeback. Jake Allen stood tall between the pipes for the Devils, making a total of 37 saves on 40 shots. Vegas received their goals from three different players on the way to securing the 3-1 victory, the goals scored by Jack Eichel, Nicolas Roy, and Shea Theodore. The Devils head to Montreal to take on the Canadiens, while the Golden Knights take on the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Saturday, February 8th.
New Jersey Devils Lineup:
Palat – Hughes – Bratt
Meier – Haula – Mercer
Cotter – Dowling – Noesen
Tatar – Lazar – Bastian
Dillon – Hamilton
Pesce – Kovacevic
Hughes – Nemec
Allen
Daws
Vegas Golden Knights Lineup:
Barbashev – Eichel – Olofsson
Dorofeyev – Hertl – Holtz
Saad – Howden – Stone
Rondjberg – Roy – Kolesar
McNabb – Theodore
Hague – Pietrangelo
Hanifin – Whitecloud
Hill
Samsonov
Nicolas Roy opened the scoring early into the middle frame at 16:51 when he got ahold of the puck after New Jersey was denied by Adin Hill, went on a breakaway, and fired from the left face-off circle, but Jake Allen stopped it. Just before Luke Hughes could sweep it off his stick, Roy slammed in the rebound to get Vegas a 1-0 lead on his seventh goal of the season. With 8:42 on the clock in the second, Shea Theodore made it 2-0 with his seventh of the season when he passed the puck to Victor Olofsson, who sent it back to him as he skated to the point, beating Allen inside the left post with a wrister.
Early into the third, Jack Eichel pushed it to 3-0 from the slot on an uncontested rebound at 15:54, picking up his 19th goal of the season. In his past 11 games, Eichel has eight goals and 13 points for Vegas. Ondrej Palat kept the Devils from getting shutout by Adin Hill and the Golden Knights when he got the puck from Stefan Noesen, who backhanded and spun around, and Palat put it home on a snap shot on the power play from low in the right circle with 4:18 left to play in regulation 3-1. It appeared that Palat struck again. However, officials ruled that he put it in with a high stick.
Luke Hughes on performance, what could be the issue, and if he feels this game wasn’t a great showing of the team elevating their game: “I don’t know, I think we just didn’t bring our game tonight. Every guy to a man didn’t play good enough, so we’re going to come back tomorrow and figure out a way to come back and play better the next game. …I think we just got to be better as a team in every aspect. Getting through the neutral zone, defending quicker, just moving pucks up, getting on the forecheck, and getting pucks back,” – “We didn’t play very good as a team, we didn’t play great individually, and we just got to come back tomorrow, regroup, figure some things out, and be ready to go for Montreal.”
Stefan Noesen on the loss/disappointment, Golden Knights, Jake Allen, and the penalty kill: “That’s a playoff team right there. That’s the bar, that’s the standard. We had times where we were OK, but not OK is not good enough. So, hopefully, we can learn from this and understand that this is what it takes to win. Tight forechecking game, we were doubled in shots. Just a little too cute, way too cute. At some point, we’re going to have to figure this out,” – “Jake played very well, the PK did a great job. It’s a dangerous power play, they got two solid units there. Tip your caps to that, but it’s just not good enough.”
Game Notes:
– In their past five games, the Devils are 2-3-0.
– Simon Nemec had been called up from the Utica Comets in the AHL earlier on Thursday and had two blocked shots in 12:32 in his first NHL game since October 22nd.
– Jesper Bratt extended his point streak to seven games after picking up an assist (one goal, nine assists).
– Jack Hughes had his six-game points streak unfortunately come to an end, recording five goals and three assists total.
– NJD: 30-20-6, VGK: 32-17-6
– Adin Hill made a total of 14 saves for Vegas. …For the first time in his eight NHL career seasons, Hill reached 20 wins (20-10-4).
– In their previous four, the Vegas Golden Knights were 0-2-2.
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