Devils Down Kings 5-2, NJ Continues Road Winning Ways | GAME STORY
The Devils pick up their 17th road win thanks to secondary scoring which propelled New Jersey over the red-hot Kings
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The Devils continue their season-long road-trip against the San Jose Sharks on Monday. The game can be seen on MSGSN and heard on the Devils Hockey Network, including right here at NewJerseyDevils.com. Puck drop is 4:08 p.m. ET.
"We were really patient tonight," Graves said post game. "They're a really stingy defensive team so we really stuck to what our game plan was of not getting frustrated with the way they play, they really tried to clog up the neutral zone and really try not to give you too much and we took the game in stride and it was a mature game by our group."
"Back-to-back games I didn't think we looked very quick right off the bat. We flipped some personnel around," said Devils head coach Lindy
Ruff about the game. "I think back-to-back games sometimes guys will have better legs than other guys and that probably made the difference."
Ten different players contributed on the scoresheet with some secondary scoring stepping up in this win. Erik Haula, Nikita Okhotiuk, Tomas Tatar, and Ryan Graves scored while Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Dawson Mercer, Ondrej Palat, and Yegor Sharangovich picked up assists.
"You can't depend on the same guys to score one or two every night so that's big," Graves said on the secondary scoring. "It makes a team hard to beat when you're getting scoring from areas you don't usually get it from."
The first period was filled with special teams action with each team getting a power-play goal. The Devils had a power play in the opening three minutes and despite some good movement by the first unit, they were unable to score. Thirty-six seconds into LA's first power play of the period, Kevin Fiala redirected in a pass from Adrian Kempe to give the Kings a 1-0 lead six and a half minutes into the game.
The Devils went back on the penalty kill again in the first period when Tatar was sent to the box for hooking, eight and a half minutes in but New Jersey killed off the penalty. Five minutes later the Devils get their second power-play of the game. Jack Hughes took a shot which was stopped by Quick and hit Nico Hischier's skate following the save. Tatar then picked up the rebound and scored high to tie the game at 1-1.
With 2:06 left in the first period, Brendan Smith received a hooking penalty and Devils penalty kill got back to work for the third time in the period. Blackwood came up with a big save with 34 seconds left on the penalty when Quentin Byfield shot while alone right in front of the net. Nine seconds later, another big save by Blackwood. The Devils kill off the penalty and end the first period tied to the Kings 1-1.
The Devils started to experiment with some line changes in the second period with Nolan Foote, Erik Haula, and Miles Wood playing together. Haula was about to change as Jesper Boqvist and Dawson Mercer had come out, but the center got the puck, went in on a 2-on-1 situation with Boqvist, and scored. Haula's third goal of the season gave the Devils a 2-1 lead in the opening minutes of the middle frame.
"I just saw the defense kind of pinch down and saw an opportunity. I knew Mercer had a bit of time so I was just screaming at him and hoping that he would make the play either up the wall or up the middle and it worked out," Haula said about his goal. The forward decided quickly to take it in and shoot, versus passing on the 2-on-1. "I felt like the D was kind of already taking the pass away right away so I was kind of zero-ing on Qucik right away."
Additional line changes seen in the second period saw Jack Hughes centering Tomas Tatar and Ondrej Palat and Nico Hischier centering Yegor Sharangovich and Jesper Bratt. The line of Jesper Boqvist, Michael McLeod, and Dawson Mercer remained in tact.
The Kings tied things back up with another power-play goal when Drew Doughty's shot hit Anze Kopitar and went past Blackwood. However, Nikita Okhotiuk scored less than a minute later to give the Devils back their lead. Okhotiuk's goal was assisted by Ondrej Palat and Jack Hughes.
About three and a half minutes later Ryan Graves shot made it through traffic thanks to Nico Hischier's screen, and got past Jonathan Quick to give the Devils a 4-2 lead. Graves' goal gives the defenseman a new career high points streak at four games.
The Devils continued to have great chances in the third period including on a power-play in the opening three minutes of the frame. With 12:41 left in the period, Kevin Fiala was granted a penalty shot; however, Blackwood came up with another big save, keeping the Kings points leader from scoring.
"The last game we played against Carolina the goal they scored in the shootout, Svechnikov was almost an identical setup to that one, so we spent a lot of time in practice going over that play," Blackwood said on the penalty shot. "When I saw it was setting up almost the exact same way it was great because I spent so much time working on that so I was fortunate enough to get that one."
Late in the game the Kings were firing away trying to get any possible goal. The Devils remained committed to blocking shots, playing smart, and received some timely saves from Blackwood. Jesper Bratt scored an empty-net goal to give the Devils a 5-2 lead and the win.
Here are some observations from the game...
Up next, the Devils travel to San Jose where they face the Sharks on Monday afternoon for the fourth game on a five-game road trip.
