The Devils made a great comeback after two unfortunate losses before the NHL All-Star break. The Colorado Avalanche played against the Devils in New Jersey on Tuesday, February 6th... Jersey was in the lead until the Avalanche caught up to them, but the Devils fought back in the end and won with a 5-3 score.
Avalanche lineup against the Devils:
Drouin - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Wood - Colton - O'Connor
Parise - Johansen - Lehkonen
Cogliano - Olofsson - Kiviranta
Toews - Makar
Girard - Manson
Byram - Malinski
Annunen
Georgiev
Devils lineup against the Avalanche:
Palat - Hischier - Bratt
Meier - Haula - Mercer
Willman - Lazar - Bastian
Tierney - Nosek - Holtz
Bahl - Nemec
Hughes - Marino
Hatakka - Miller
Vanecek
Daws
Opening the scoring and getting the Avalanche in the lead - Mikko Rantanen scored a snap shot from the slot early in the first period at 18:37. Only 42 seconds later, Chris Tierney tied up the game 1-1 with a deflection from the right circle.
Josh Manson appeared to have gotten the puck past Vitek Vanecek from the high slot, however, the Devils challenged for goaltender interference and it was determined there was no goal. Giving the Devils a 2-1 lead, Jesper Bratt strikes his 20th goal of the season. Bratt scored from the left circle off a give-and-go on a 2-on-1 with Nico Hischier... Bratt extended his point streak to three games. Dawson Mercer poked the loose puck to the right of Justus Annunen and gave New Jersey a 3-1 lead.
On a 4-on-4, Cale Makar nets one from the left post and Samuel Girard scores a slap shot from the left face-off circle at the top seconds after getting the game back into a tie, 3-3. Later in the final period, John Marino gave back the lead to the Devils and Erik Haula scored an empty-netter with one second remaining... the Devils got the 5-3 final.
Notes:
- Both Jesper Bratt and Erik Haula had a goal and an assist
- Nico Hischier had two assists
- Tomas Nosek had three shots in his return... missing 31 games due to a broken foot
- Tyler Toffoli was a late scratch due to an illness
- Jack Hughes may be back in the next game... He was at practice two days in a row and seems to be doing a lot better.
- The Devils had their 17th comeback win and now are tied with the Dallas Stars for the NHL lead.
- Vitek Vanecek made 35 saves for New Jersey
- Nathan MacKinnon's 14-game point streak was unfortunately put to an end... He had 29 points during this streak (13 goals, 16 assists)
- Jonathan Drouin had two assists
- Justus Annunen made 26 saves for Colorado
Special side note:
- Luke Hughes played SO well during this game (as usual)! Amazing defense by him for sure in this big win for the Devils.
John Marino on the Devils comeback 5-3 win against the Avalanche: "Give up the lead and be able to come back and win that game against a good team too. So hopefully that goes a long way for us."
Dawson Mercer on the Devils 5-3 comeback: "I thought overall we had a great game. Kept on leading into it, then they got those chances and ended up finding our way back right in it... We stuck with it. We want to get those two points, they're huge now at this time of the year."
*All photos used by the New Jersey Devils used with permission*
Comments
Post a Comment