Devils Win Nine in a Row, Stop Coyotes Road Show | GAME STORY

Where it stops, nobody knows. But it isn't tonight.
The win streak for the New Jersey Devils continues on and has now hit nine straight games, after a 4-2 victory against the Arizona Coyotes. The Coyotes came into a packed Prudential Center riding a three-game road win streak, two streaks colliding with one another.
With goals from Tomas Tatar, Jack Hughes, Jesper Boqvist and Dougie Hamilton, along with Akira Schmid backstoppoing the team in net. the Devils win once again. Akira Schmid manned the Devils net with Nico Daws backing up, while Vitek Vanecek was given the night off. Schmid said after the game in relief he didn't want to be the one to end the streak and it lives on for another night.
"It feels good, to play the sixty minutes, over a whole game too," Schmid said after the game, "there's a lot of stuff to build on."
His teammates have been impressed with the way he's handled his recent appearances, with his first two NHL victories.
"I've got so much respect for these goalies," Nathan Bastian said, "They've got to hang in there all game and a lot of weight is on their shoulders. We saw Vitek step in in Edmonton, the way he handled that, and the same way Schmid did, and almost even tougher obviously, with the lack of NHL experience."
New Jersey's ninth straight victory secured with a 4-2 win at home in front of a raucous Prudential Center crowd.

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The Devils hit the road next week for an Eastern Canada road trip with stops in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa.
- The goal marked a new career-high for Tatar, who is in his 13th NHL season, with points in seven straight games. He would later add an assist later in the period on Jack Hughes' game-tying goal.

During his point streak, Tatar has seven assists and two goals. - Adding to that, Tatar's two point night is his second this season, in 15 games played. Last season, a year when Tatar admitted during training camp that he struggled, had only three two-point nights all of last seaosn. - The seven-game point streak also applies to the captain, Nico Hischier. His assist on Tatar's goal ensured that. It marks a new career-high for the 23-year-old. - After the Coyotes evened up the game at one on their first power play opportunity, the game would stay tied for all of 23 seconds. Jack Hughes had the push-back goal, wiring a shot from the circle, picking the top corner with hit shot. The goal was his fifth of the season and Tatar had one of two assists (Damon Severson), to complete his two-point night. - Just the other day Lindy Ruff spoke about Jesper Boqvist's play since he's come into the lineup. Ruff said he's liked Boqvist's play, has done what's been asked of him and is some of the better hockey he's seen him play. It felt like only a matter of time until Boqvist was going to get rewarded for his efforts and that was the case on Saturday, hammering in his own rebound in the second period for a 3-2 goal.

"He fits as part of our team play," head coach Lindy Ruff said, "He scored the goal, great effort when he drew the penalty, that was a big moment in the game. You look at a players shifts, you look at what he's done and I thought that he's been able to contribute, it hasn't been on the scoresheet until tonight, but I did say it, it will come if he keeps doing the right things."

Boqvist had started the season in a difficult spot as an odd-man-out, but when Ondrej Palat went out with injury, it opened up a spot for Boqvist that he has grabbed a hold of, tonight rewarded on the scoresheet for his efforts.

- Dougie Hamtilon scored his fourth goal of the season with a bomb from the blueline to double the Devils lead, 4-2, at 14:15 of the second period. Despite Hamilton's goal, the man-advantage struggled against the Coyotes, going 1-for-5. Between the two teams there were eight penalty calls in the second period alone.

"It's night and day for me," Hamilton said about how feeling healthy after a difficult season last year has impacted him, "just how comfortable I feel on the ice, its night and day I try not to think about it too much I just try to keep getting better, keep improving and keep going." - The combination of 15 penalties in a single game between the Devils and their opponent is the highest penalty total this season. - One game after Akira Schmid picked up his first NHL win, a game in which he came into the game cold and off the bench in relief of Vitek Vanecek, he picks up his first win as an NHL starter.