After going through tough losses and a three-game losing streak, the Devils defeated the St. Louis Blues on Thursday, March 7th at the Prudential Center for their first win under new head coach, Travis Green. In Green's debut as the new head coach, the Devils unfortunately lost 5-3 when playing the Florida Panthers on Tuesday. It was an exciting victory for New Jersey as they've been struggling with losses, however, their victory wasn't the only thrilling part... Timo Meier recorded his fifth career hat trick for that 4-1 final against the Blues. Brandon Saad scored the lone goal for St. Louis.
Blues lineup against the Devils:
Saad - Thomas - Kyrou
Neighbours - Schenn - Buchnevich
Bolduc - Hayes - Kapanen
Walker - Sundqvist - Toropchenko
Leddy - Parayko
Krug - Faulk
Scandella - Perunovich
Binnington
Devils lineup against the Blues:
Palat - Hischier - Meier
Hughes - Haula - Bratt
Tierney - Lazar - Mercer
MacDermid - Nosek - Holtz
Siegenthaler - Marino
Bahl - Smith
Hughes - Nemec
Daws
Schmid
Opening the scoring late in the first period at 6:36, Timo Meier scored with a nasty backhand to put New Jersey ahead 1-0 on the power play. Meier struck again for his second of the night and his 15th of the season to push it 2-0 with a snap shot from the slot with 3:56 remaining in the opening 20 minutes. Nico Daws made six saves, as well as consecutive stops against Jake Neighbours in the first frame.
Brandon Saad cut it to 2-1 at 10:57 with his first goal in four games, also his 18th of the season. Saad smacked home a rebound with a snap shot of a shot from the high slot that hit the right post initially by Scott Perunovich, from the bottom of the left face-off circle. Timo Meier completed his hat trick, recording his 17th goal of the season, with a powerful snap shot at the high slot with 3:20 left in the middle frame.
After the third frame being scoreless, Erik Haula struck the Blues' empty net with one minute remaining for the 4-1 final, recording his 13th goal of the season.
Timo Meier on what was working so well for the team and his thoughts on the Devils' performance: "We were making good plays defensively... sometimes they were pushing and I thought we held back good. We just found a way to win a game, which is really important and now we got to build on this," - "Winning is a lot more fun and now we got to keep this feeling. We got to work on our game, we got to keep building. We have enough games left where we believe we can still make a big push and put ourselves in a position where we have a shot at the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I think that's where we got to believe but we got to come in every day, work hard with our coaches, and everybody's good individually working their game. That's the way we can do it if everybody chips in."
Notes:
- Both Ondrej Palat and Nico Hischier recorded two assists... Timo Meier has six goals during a four-game goal streak and nine points during a five-game point streak (six goals, three assists).
Palat had two takeaways and two blocked shots in 15:34 in his return after he had missed one game due to a lower-body injury. Hischier had five shots, three takeaways, and two blocked shots... also was 12-for-23 on face-offs in 19:37.
- Nico Daws made a total of 23 saves for New Jersey, and Jordan Binnington made 29 saves for St. Louis.
- Simon Nemec played 17:34 with one shot in his return after he had been a healthy scratch on Tuesday,
- Robert Thomas played a team-high 23:59 and also went 14-for-25 on face-offs.
*All photos used by the New Jersey Devils used with permission*
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