The New Jersey Devils looked like the squad that broke the franchise point record the previous season and showed promise in the postseason for one game.
They will not make it back to the playoffs if they continue in this manner over the last 12 games of the regular season.
New Jersey startled hot-shot Winnipeg 4-1 on Thursday night in one of their better performances in a poor season thanks to goals from brother Luke Hughes with a career-high three helpers and two goals from Jack Hughes during the Devils’ three power-play opportunities.
After New Jersey won its second straight, interim coach Travis Green of the Devils observed, We played good, to put it mildly. Winnipeg is undoubtedly among the top teams in the league.
I felt like our boys just spent sixty minutes playing a really regimented, fast-paced game.
That is not very common. Throughout the season, New Jersey has not won more than three straight games.
Jack Hughes, who increased his goal total to 23 and kept New Jersey six points off of the final wild-card slot in the Eastern Conference with time running out, declared that “that was definitely one of our better games.
With two assists, Nico Hischier scored the game-winning goal during a power play. For New Jersey, the victory came after three out of four starts thanks to an empty-net goal and two assists from Timo Meier and 18 stops from Jake Allen.
In addition, the Jets’ three-game winning streak was snapped, and they suffered their fourth loss in 11 games when the Devils turned down all four of their power-play opportunities.
Indeed, special teams prevailed in tonight’s game, according to Hischier. Penalty kill was really powerful, so don’t freak off.
We kept them on the outside and didn’t panic, even though I believe they got a lot of O-zone time during the power play.
The Jets’ incredible goal came from Nikolaj Ehlers, and Laurent Brossoit’s five-game winning streak was ended despite his 37 saves.
At 5:59 of the third period, Hischier broke a 1-1 tie by deflecting a Meier shot past Brossoit in the final seconds of Dylan DeMelo’s penalty for tripping Luke Hughes. At 11:52, Jack Hughes’ high-slot shot put the score at 3-1, and Meier’s empty-net goal sealed the victory.
At 16:47, Ehlers scored his 21st goal of the season with a fantastic individual effort to knot the score at one all. After retrieving a puck from the Devils’ defense and skating back to his own blue line, the Danish forward beat Allen with a fast shot from inside the left circle.
Jet defenseman Brenden Dillon described the goal as incredible. How much more can you say about him? Throughout the year, we witness him doing such for us frequently. He possesses both elite-level speed and talent. So, what those guys are capable of is incredible.
At 9:00 of the second frame, Jack Hughes scored the first goal of the game by deflecting a Hischier shot past Brossoit, who had won both of his previous starts. The Jets were punished for having too many men on the ice, and that was only nine seconds before the goal.
Although there was no scoring in the first period, in the first few minutes Brossoit stopped Hischier on a breakaway, and shortly after, Allen replied by stopping Ehlers from breaking in alone after he was set up by former Devil Tyler Toffoli, who was playing in his 800th NHL game.