The Devils closed out their homestand with a big final period, where they scored four unanswered to take the game away from Chicago.
First Period
After a bad pass from Jesper Bratt turned the puck over during the first shift of the game, Ryan Donato had it for a one-on-one chance with Johnny Kovacevic to beat. The shot went off the post, though I was certain it was going in when Markstrom failed to stop it, as Kovacevic deflected it high. The Chicago Blackhawks then went to the power play, as Jack Hughes took a hooking penalty in the neutral zone. Fortunately, the New Jersey Devils played very well during the two minutes, exposing the special teams advantage for the penalty kills early in the game.
Drew Commesso, a 2020 second-round selection, was making his debut for the Blackhawks in net today. He made his first stop of the game on Stefan Noesen close to the five-minute mark. Noesen later created a turnover in the offensive zone, giving Paul Cotter time and space to fire off a good shot — but Commesso stopped it again and froze play. On the other end, Connor Bedard had a rush chance but tried to make the extra pass, trying to get Jacob Markstrom out of position. Markstrom went out of the crease, sprawling on his side, while Jonas Siegenthaler came across, taking up as much space as he could — and Connor Murphy’s shot didn’t get through Siegenthaler.
Brenden Dillon took a tripping penalty, sending the Devils back to the penalty kill. After a great minute and a half, Markstrom had to make a save on Taylor Hall before forcing Ryan Donato to hit the side of the net off the rebound. After the penalty expired, Ryan Donato took a sharp-angle shot that hit Markstrom in the neck, and Markstrom stayed down for a bit after freezing the puck. He stayed in the game, though.
Ilya Mikheyev took the first penalty for Chicago, as he cross-checked Stefan Noesen behind the net. Nico Hischier won the draw, but the Blackhawks cleared the zone early. Whe the Devils maintained possession in the offensive zone, Jack Hughes danced at the top of the zone, and the Devils cycled until the puck came all the way back to him. His shot was blocked, but the Devils kept possession. Hamilton took his spot by the wall, and he took a shot from there that went on goal — but Commesso denied Stefan Noesen on the rebound, going on his back to freeze the puck. The second unit did was also unable to score, and the teams went back to even strength for most of the final two minutes of the period.
Timo Meier beat Commesso but hit the far post on a rush. Thus, the Devils went to the first intermission tied with no score.
Second Period
Commesso and Markstrom traded saves at the start of the period, with Commesso just getting a piece of a shot from Nico Hischier on the rush. Markstrom then snagged a wrister from Connor Bedard on the other end, freezing play. A shift later, Luke Hughes was taken down by Frank Nazar, sending the Devils to the power play for the second time. Hwever, the first unit kept just missing on pretty much everything they did. Their asses were off, their shots were off: they were off.
Ondrej Palat was bailed out when he fell as he was skating with the puck at the blueline, as T.J. Brodie was called for an interference minor for upending Jesper Bratt. Nico Hischier looked like he was going to finally score the first goal of the game on a rush, but his hope for a tap-in was just denied with a last-moment deflection of the pass across. The Devils woke up a bit there, ending up with five shots saved by Commesso.
After Markstrom made a stop on Taylor Hall, freezing play, the third line completely misplayed the defensive zone faceoff, giving the Blackhawks a two-on-none direct to Markstrom. Tyler Bertuzzi tried to roof a backhand, beating Markstrom, but denied by the crossbar. However, Markstrom was finally beat when a two-on-none with Foligno and Dickinson led to a Dickinson shot off the post, which deflected off of Luke Hughes’s face and into the net, giving the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead in the final six and a half minutes of the second period.
The Devils continued to suffer, with Erik Haula getting robbed by Commesso’s glove in the late third. Then, Stefan Noesen was called for tripping, sending the Devils to the penalty kill for the final 49 seconds of the period. Thankfully, Markstrom only had to stop one shot, and the Devils went to the second intermission down one.
Third Period
The Devils mostly held the Blackhawks away for the remainder of the period, except for a slip-up with Connor Bedard. Bedard split the middle, shooting after moving to his forehand in the low slot. He beat Markstrom, but not the crossbar. The Devils killed the penalty.
Then Luke Hughes made his mark on the game. After he was taken down by what I thought might have been an illegal hit by Jason Dickinson, Brett Pesce blocked a shot from Foligno, and the puck was worked ahead as Hughes waited at the far blueline. Timo Meier and Dawson Mercer went to the net as Meier circled Dickinson with a head of steam, but the Blackhawks poked the puck out when he tried to set up Mercer. Luke, trailing, took it on his backhand and slipped a pass right to the middle, where Dawson Mercer tied the game!
At the end of a long shift, Luke Hughes deflected a pass from behind the net to Jason Dickinson, denying Chicago a scoring chance. A few minutes went by, and the Devils started getting more and more of the opportunities. The Hischier line and the Hughes-Pesce pairing had Chicago pinned deep for a long time, and Dawson Mercer had the right instincts to go all the way to a bench for a change as Luke Hughes used the last of his energy to skate the puck around the offensive zone. As Hughes lost possession, Jesper Bratt came on, not allowing Wyatt Kaiser to get it down for even an icing as he got pinned into the boards. Brett Pesce got the puck, zipping it to the middle for Jack Hughes, who hit the top left corner! The Devils took the lead with just 9:32 to play in the game.
That would not be it for Jesper Bratt or the Devils. Bratt was on with Nico Hischier, springing the captain into the offensive zone with speed. Nico held off T.J. Brodie on his back, forcing a shot past Commesso as he held the puck on his backhand until the last moment! The Devils took a 3-1 lead! Just 18 seconds after that goal, Dawson Mercer shot through a screen, and Timo Meier made it 4-1 on the rebound!
Timo Meier tried to dance through traffic to extend the lead again, but this time, Drew Commesso stopped him on the quick move to his forehand. Meier, coming from the goal line a few minutes later, sent a pass through to Bratt on the backdoor, but Bratt could not get the shot off. Still, the Devils controlled play for much of the remainder of the game, capturing a 4-1 victory.
The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary / The NHL.com Event Summary / The NHL.com Play by Play Log / The NHL.com Shot Summary / The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats
Revenge of the Dawg
I was worried about Dawson Mercer after last game, when he took a deflected shot to the mouth. But Dawson was not going to let his iron man streak — now 279 to start his career — end on an unlucky play. And where would the Devils be without Dawson Mercer? Scoring the game-tying goal and creating the rebound for the fourth, Dawson was a huge part of the offensive outburst during the third period, and he was a key part of a dominant top line even with a full cage on his helmet. His two points today bring him up to seven goals and nine assists in the team’s 33 games, and I hope he can get back to that 50-60 point pace he flashed in the 2022-23 season with more performances like this one.
Timo Time + The Captain and Bratt
Timo Meier has had a few rough patches this season, and it has usually seemed more like bad luck than anything else. He was most recently in a five-game stretch with just one point — a goal against Seattle. But Meier has been using his skillset exactly as he is supposed to, and he has made a lot of scoring chances for himself. At the end of the last recap, I asked when the goal-scoring explosion would come for Hischier and Meier. Today, Meier had two points, getting up to 10 goals and 12 assists on the year. He led the team in individual expected goals at even strength, he was a huge factor in creating that game-tying goal, and he was rewarded with the insurance score. Meier and Mercer both getting two today was great to see.
Jesper Bratt had another noteworthy game, with two assists that provided the blows that knocked Chicago down for the killer goal from Meier. Bratt is still on the 100+ point pace, as the first Devil to break 40, now at 41 on the season. His intensity on the forecheck to create that Hughes game-winner, and he got a bonus when Nico intercepted that pass and connected with him for the give-and-go. I like any night where the Devils win and the Captain gets on the board — I think he is at his best when he has the confidence to hunt for goals.
Slow Start, But Mostly Good Defense
I do not think Sheldon Keefe liked the jump the team had in the first and second period tonight, and I cannot imagine he liked those odd-man chances the Devils defense kept allowing to leak through every now and then. That said, the defense was only a problem for the Dillon-Hamilton pairing. Maybe it’s just the way the Blackhawks play and the speed that those two players possess, but they allowed 13 scoring chances and seven high-danger ones today. No other defenders allowed more than seven SCA and two HDCA.
The goal against, of course, came off Luke Hughes’s head when he was skating with Johnny Kovacevic, but Pesce, Hughes, Kovacevic, and Siegenthaler were all huge parts in the reason the Devils won today. Brett Pesce made play after play, jumping out to the neutral zone to take the puck away on several occasions — and he was on the ice for all four Devils goals. Jonas Siegenthaler swallowed up some potential scoring chances and blocked a few shots. Kovacevic was his usual solid self. Luke Hughes was the offensive creator tonight with Dougie struggling, and he could have been on for all four goals, but he used the opportunity to change off for Kovacevic as Pesce was setting up his brother’s game-winner.
That Hughes-Pesce pairing, though? The Corsi disparity was 24-5 while the Devils outshot the Blackhawks 8-2 in 15:03 of five-on-five time, and the two had a 90.42 xGF% with a 15-1 scoring chance advantage as the Devils scored three and allowed nothing with both of their best pairing on the ice. The combination of Luke’s skating, defensive stick, and hands is deadly next to Brett Pesce’s stand-up, positionally-aggressive defense. Brett does not wait for the play to come to him — he goes out to stop the attack before it starts. If the puck gets through, somehow, Luke will usually be right on top of it. On the flip-side, Luke is able to do pretty much anything he wants, and he knows he has one of the most responsible players in the league next to him.
Not Too Bad At Home
Today’s win brings the Devils up to 20 wins on the season in their 33rd game. They are the third team to 20 wins, behind just the Capitals and the Jets, though they do have more regulation wins (19) than both teams (17, pending tonight’s games). Their performance at home was an issue coming into this five-game home stand, though, and they come away from the set having gone 3-1-1, with their only bad game coming against Colorado. This brings the Devils up to 9-6-3 at home on the season, which looks a lot better than the 6-5-2 they were at before these games. Today’s win was also the first time this season where the Devils trailed going into the third period at home and came away with a victory — they were 0-6-2 in those situations before tonight.
Your Thoughts
What did you think of today’s game? Were you able to watch or attend? How did you like the performance from Markstrom? What about the outburst in the third? How do you think the next stretch of games will go after taking the last two at home? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.