Devils lose 5-3 against the Flames, 2/8/24

February 08, 2024

Devils lose 5-3 against the Flames, 2/8/24

The Calgary Flames defeated the Devils in New Jersey at The Rock on Thursday, February 8th. Jack Hughes made his return after missing 11 games due to an upper-body injury he sustained on the 5th of January against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Flames won their third game straight with a 5-3 score.

Flames lineup against the Devils:

Huberdreau - Sharagovich - Kuzmenko

Zary - Kadri - Posposil

Mangiapane - Backlund - Coleman

Pelletier - Rooney - Duehr

Weegar - Andersson

Hanifin - Tanev

Kylington - Pachal

Markstrom

Devils lineup against the Flames:

Palat - Hischier - Bratt

Meier - Haula - Mercer

Toffoli - Hughes - Holtz

Lazar - Nosek - Bastian

Bahl - Nemec

Hughes - Marino

Hatakka - Miller

Vanecek

Daws

The Devils open the scoring late into the first period - Ondrej Palat gives the Devils a 1-0 lead with his seventh goal of the season. Palat scored a one-timer from the left face-off circle off a 2-on-1 with Jesper Bratt. Not long after Palat's goal, Mikael Backlund tied the game up at 1-1 with a snapshot along the goal line.

Connor Zary gave the Flames a 2-1 lead at 16:07 of the second period. Zary grabbed up a loose puck and scored on a backhand. Calgary holds their one-goal lead throughout the rest of the middle frame.

Kevin Rooney pushed for a 3-1 lead for Calgary in the final frame. Rooney shot from the slot, scoring his first goal since December 7th, 2021. Nico Hischier cut it to 3-2 at 15:58. Hischier scored his 14th goal of the season with a shorthanded goal on a breakaway. Scoring his second goal as a Flame, Andrei Kuzmenko made it a two-goal lead for the Flames. Kuzmenko scored on a turnaround shot from the high slot. Ondrej Palat struck his second goal of the game and his eighth of the season, cutting it to 4-3, with a deflection at the left post. Getting one more goal in to wrap it up - Andrew Mangiapane scored an empty-netter for the 5-3 final.

Connor Zary on the Flames' 5-3 win over the Devils: "It feels good. I think we kind of just took the mentality from the last game and tried to move forward - I think the first period was a little back and forth, but I think we found our game. We were able to stick to that for most of it. I think that's what we got to keep doing here to move forward."

Nico Hischier on the Devils' 5-3 loss against the Calgary Flames: "Frustrating. I think we still had some consistency in our game - Lots of opportunities... but it's obviously frustrating losing like that. Especially when we wanted to get going here and get a couple of wins."

Notes:

- Jacob Markstrom made 37 saves for Calgary

- Jonathan Huberdreau hit 800 career games... he became the fifth player from the 2011 NHL Draft to reach this milestone.

- Both Connor Zary and Andrew Mangiapane had a goal and an assist

- Andrei Kuzmenko scored his second goal in his second straight game as a Flame

- Noah Hanifin recorded two assists

- Vitek Vanecek made 25 saves for New Jersey

- Jesper Bratt extended his point streak to six games (four goals, five assists)

- Ondrej Palat scored two goals... Nico Hischier had a goal and an assist, Jesper Bratt recorded three assists

- Jack Hughes had four shots on goal in his return after missing 11 games due to the upper-body injury he sustained in January during a game against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Ondrej Palat on the Devils' 5-3 loss: "I thought we had a good first period. We had chances where we could've scored a couple. But, like I said, it's not about scoring more goals, it's about keeping them from our own net - We're just looking for consistency."