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."
*All photos used by the New Jersey Devils used with permission*
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