CHICAGO, IL—The New Jersey Devils jumped out to an early two-goal lead on the Chicago Blackhawks by the 6:50 mark of the opening period and never looked back or conceded their lead.
New Jersey began its road trip with a 5-3 victory against Chicago, backstopped by Jacob Markstrom who made 21 saves on 25 shots.
"Every line was contributing in their way,” Jesper Bratt said. “It was really nice for Bass’ line to get in and get the first one. Kind of really get that energy boost for us as a team going, power play was clicking and Marky played good in net. Full team effort.”
Nathan Bastian, in his return to the lineup, scored the opening goal of the game, left alone by Spencer Knight's left post after a coverage miscommunication between Blackhawk players Artyom Levshunov and Wyatt Kaiser, snapped a shot into an wide-open net for the early Devils lead.
"You get taken out of the lineup just because you’re flat out not playing well enough, so it’s unfortunate, but it kind of gives you a chance to reset, and sometimes guys need that, and they don’t know that they need that," Bastian said. "I felt a little more jump today, I was excited to play. It was really nice to make the most of it.”
Timo Meier promptly doubled the Devils lead, taking a whack at the puck on Dawson Mercer’s goal-line drive to the net, popping the puck past Knight for a 2-0 lead just 6:50 into the game.
While the Blackhawks responded with a goal by Tyler Bertuzzi in the first, the Devils took the 2-1 lead into second period.
Ondrej Palat took advantage of what looked like a sloppy Blackhawks power play at 3:14 of the 2nd, tallying his 14th goal of the season and first shorthanded goal since 2019 with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Devils and Hawks traded two more goals, one from Blackhawk Ilya Mikheyev to cut the Devils lead to 3-2, before Dawson Mercer doubled up the lead at 4-2 with a lethal-looking wrist shot on the power play.
The Blackhawks got within one goal when Frank Nazar put the puck past Markstrom, while Chicago had an empty net in place of the extra attacker. Although dissapointing to give up the goal, the moments that followed to close out the game, head coach Sheldon Keefe sees as very valuable to his team.
"It’s exactly what we needed," he said. "It was great for us, we have to find our way through these things. It was exactly what we needed.”
“As much as you wish we did a better job with the 6-on-5 and didn’t get one, I liked that the intensity and the emotion and urgency of the game really ratcheted up at the end," he continued, "We had to find our way through that, that’s really important for us. So to do that, still get the two points I think is a good day for us.”
Chicago would pull Knight a second time, after Nazar's goal, but New Jersey sealed the victory with Stefan Noesen's 20th goal of the season, hitting the 20 goal mark for the first time in his career.
"Just what we needed for the start of the road trip," Mercer said. "Get two points under our belt and be happy with our game moving on now for the next one. It’s great when everyone contributes when we get a win like that.”
The Devils travel to Winnipeg next to take on the Jets on Friday night.
