New Jersey has been struggling with several losses lately, with a few wins here and there. However, in their past two games, they've made a comeback. They defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 on Tuesday and defeated the Winnipeg Jets 4-1 on Thursday, following a two-game losing streak. Jack Hughes scored two goals in the Devils' 4-1 victory against the Jets, ending his seven-game goal drought. He has 67 points, currently, this season (23 goals, 44 assists). Luke Hughes has been on fire in his rookie season with 38 points (8 goals, 30 assists)... in this game, he had an NHL career-high three assists.
Jets lineup against the Devils:
Connor - Scheifele - Iafallo
Ehlers - Monahan - Toffoli
Niederreiter - Lowry - Appleton
Barron - Gustafsson - Namestnikov
Morrissey - DeMelo
Dillon - Pionk
Samberg - Schmidt
Brossoit
Hellebuyck
Devils lineup against the Jets:
Meier - Hischier - Bratt
Hughes - Haula - Holtz
Palat - Nosek - Mercer
MacDermid - Tierney - Lazar
Bahl - Smith
Hughes - DeSimone
Hatakka - Nemec
Allen
Kahkonen
The first frame for Winnipeg and New Jersey had remained scoreless, heading into the second period for the Devils to take the lead and then the Jets tying it 1-1. Jake Allen made five saves in the first, and stopped a breakaway attempt by Nikolaj Ehlers.
Jack Hughes began the scoring at 11:00 of the second period to end his goal drought and get New Jersey in the lead 1-0. Hughes had gone after a rebound just outside of the left post. Later into the period at 3:13, Nikolaj Ehlers tied it 1-1 to put Winnipeg up on the board before the end of the middle frame with his 21st goal of the season. He scored on a wrist shot after he went over the blue line and into the left face-off circle.
Early into the final frame at 14:01, Nico Hischier put the Devils back on top for his 23rd goal of the season and his second in the past five games. With three seconds remaining on the power play, he scored from the slot on a redirection. Jack Hughes hunted down his second of the game to push it to 3-1 at 8:08 when he sent a wrister through a screen on the power play from the high slot. With only 49 seconds left in regulation, Timo Meier struck the empty net for the 4-1 final. Meier has 11 goals in the past 11 games, starting from the beginning of March.
Jack Hughes on the Devils' second straight victory and the power play: "It was definitely one of our better games, we played really well," - "Just slapping the puck a little bit quicker, shooting more pucks, recovering more pucks, just much cleaner and much more crisper power."
Luke Hughes on the way the team played and their power play: "I think we played the same way the whole 60... had a pretty good start to the game, which helps," - "We got five really good players and an unbelievable second unit too, so I think it's kind of about time before we clicked. We just got to keep that going into the next game, and we did a really good job of moving the puck fast today and scoring on our opportunities."
Notes:
- Both Timo Meier and Nico Hischier had a goal and an assist, and Jake Allen made 18 saves for New Jersey in his third straight start.
Meier had recorded 12 goals in the past 14 games after he scored 10 in his first 43. Jack Hughes had a total of 10 shots in 20:36.
- Luke Hughes has become the third rookie defenseman in franchise history to record three power-play assists in a game (Will Butcher, October 7th, 2017; Bruce Driver, December 14th, 1984). He is also the first rookie defenseman to do this in the NHL since his older brother, Quinn Hughes, on November 21st, 2019.
- Since being traded to the Winnipeg Jets from the Devils on March 8th, Tyler Toffoli had two shots on goal in 17:55 of ice time in his first game against the Devils. This also had been his 800th NHL career game.
- Laurent Brossoit made a total of 37 saves for Winnipeg, and Josh Morrissey had four shots on goal in 25:42, a game-high.
*All photos used by the New Jersey Devils used with permission*
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