NEW YORK, N.Y. - The New Jersey Devils scored a minute and a half into their game against the New York Rangers and never looked back. Jack Hughes paced the team with two goals while Dawson Mercer, Dougie Hamilton, and Jesper Bratt also added one. Jacob Markstrom shined in his first Devils-Rangers rivalry game, stopping 39 of the 40 shots he faced.
"Markstrom was our best player tonight," Jack Hughes shared post-game. "Penalty kill did a really good job, a lot of shot blocks. I know they gave up one, but a lot of shot blocks by our whole team. A really good effort in that sense. But Markstrom was our best player adn really held us in there."
"Much better the way we started the game," Keefe explained. "Guys took advantage of an opportunity to go ahead early and Bratt made good on it. Great goal by Mercer as well to help us extend our lead, it really gave us control of the game. There's a lot of things that I'd like us to do better throughout the game but we got timely goals, good goals from guys at different key moments.
"Another thing that stood out was that we blocked shots tonight too," Keefe continued. "A lot of our game wasn't perfect, we defended a little bit too much for my liking tonight in terms of time spent without the puck, but guys defended hard and blocked a number of shots here tonight."
Jesper Bratt opened the scoring for the Devils 1:27 into the game. The play started in the Devils end when Johnathan Kovacevic chipped the puck away from Filip Chytil and Ondrej Palat collected it. Palat quickly passed the puck to Bratt who used his speed to get up ice and make it a 2-on-1 with Jack Hughes. From there, Bratt took his opportunity and scored. The goal broke a streak of seven straight games in which New Jersey has conceded the opening goal and kicked off the quick start the Devils were searching for last month.
Seven minutes in, the Devils made it 2-0, this time Dawson Mercer with a goal. Mercer picked up the rebound of a blocked shot, drove into space and shot quickly. This allowed the winger the lane to shoot and double New Jersey’s lead. It was the second goal on only the Devils fourth shot.
"The most important thing is to score more than the other team," Markstrom explained. "But if you score first, they they got to chase it, the game opens up a little bit. I thought we capitalized. They were pushing and we came back and scored two big goals in the first."
With just over two minutes left in the opening frame, Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller hit the post with a shot through a screen. Brett Pesce was key in boxing out Adam Edstrom net front so he couldn’t gain possession and take a shot net front. Following, the Rangers continued to push but the Devils kept a 2-0 lead going into the first intermission.
The Rangers pushed hard and kept the Devils defending their zone early in the second period. However, the middle frame was full of special teams action and New Jersey took advantage. Seven minutes in, the Devils went on their first power play of the game and with 21 seconds left on the man-advantage, the Rangers took another penalty giving the visitors a 5-on-3 advantage. With just two seconds left in the first power play, Dougie Hamilton scored his fifth of the season to make it 3-0. Hamilton's goal was his fourth power play tally this season.
Seven and a half minutes in to the second period, Jack Hughes' spinning shot made it 4-0 Devils. Hughes was net front and able to take advantage of his brother Luke's shot that was deflected through on goal. Jesper Bratt also picked up an assist on the goal. However, New York responded less than a minute later with their first goal of the game. Chris Kreider cleaned up a puck down low on the power play to make it 4-1 Devils.
In the final two minutes of the middle frame, the Rangers took two penalties, giving the Devils a 4-on-3 advantage for 1:21. Once again, New Jersey took advantage. Jack Hughes, from the slot, increased New Jersey's lead, 5-1 and scored the team's second power play goal of the night. Captain Nico Hischier was screening Shesterkin and providing great net front pressure. Each team recorded 18 shots in the second period while the Devils had three goals and the Rangers only had one.
The Devils had to defend well against the Rangers who continued to push; however New Jersey continued to hold off New York. When the Devils needed him to, Markstrom continued to make timely saves. New Jersey kept New York from scoring in the final 26:31 and secured the first win of this season series.
"Markstrom was fantastic," Bratt shared. "Came up with some really game changing saves and the game would have looked very different, especially in the first period, without some of thesaves from him. Amazing game from him."
