The Devils took on the Maple Leafs at the Prudential Center on Tuesday, April 9th to hopefully get two points. However, those hopes were cut short when the Maple Leafs took a 3-2 lead and won 5-2 to eliminate New Jersey from playoff contention. The Devils had been without Jack Hughes, who will be out for the remainder of the season and will be proceeding with shoulder surgery to make a comeback next season. Auston Matthews scored his 66th league-leading goal, becoming the first active player to record at least 66 goals in a season since Mario Lemieux recorded 69 in the 1995-96 season for the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Devils and Maple Leafs meet again on Thursday in Toronto, both teams have three games left in the regular season.
Maple Leafs lineup against the Devils:
Bertuzzi - Matthews - Domi
McMann - Tavares - Marner
Robertson - Holmberg - Nylander
Knies - Kampf - Gregor
Rielly - Brodie
Benoit - McCabe
Giordano - Timmins
Woll
Jones
Devils lineup against the Maple Leafs:
Bowers - Hischier - Bratt
Meier - Haula - Holtz
Palat - Nosek - Mercer
MacDermid - Tierney - Foote
Hughes - Marino
Bahl - Smith
Siegenthaler - Nemec
Allen
Schmid
At 11:04 of the first frame, Nicholas Robertson put the Maple Leafs ahead 1-0 when he fired a wrist shot from the slot for his 13th goal of the season and his fourth in the past seven games. Nico Hischier tied it 1-1 at 5:35 with a backhanded shot after splitting up Jake McCabe and Simon Benoit at the blue line. It had been Hischier's 27th goal of the season, as well as his third since the beginning of April.
Dawson Mercer gave New Jersey a 2-1 lead on the power play at 14:43 of the second. He scored just inside the left post with a backhand to record his 20th goal of the season and his second point of the game (one goal, one assist). With 5:00 left on the clock in the middle frame, Tyler Bertuzzi tied it 2-2 at the bottom of the right circle off a wrist shot with his 20th of the season... just nine seconds later, Mark Giordano put Toronto back on top at the left point with a slap shot.
Early into the third period at 12:27, Auston Matthews went for his 66th to push it to 4-2 when he struck a wrister past Jake Allen from the top of the right circle. Tyler Bertuzzi wrapped it up with an empty-netter for his 21st goal of the season and the 5-2 final with 1:13 left in regulation. Mitch Marner recorded the secondary assist on Bertuzzi's empty-net goal for his third assist since returning to the lineup.
Dawson Mercer on the loss, how the Devils played, and what makes the Maple Leafs a difficult team: "I thought we obviously were doing good and playing well... We had the right intentions that we wanted to win, but that happens in hockey - sometimes you're on the good side and sometimes you're on the bad," - "Every game you want to give it your all, play your best, and keep on getting better. The nice thing is we get another opportunity now in a few days to play them again and we look forward to that. They're a good hockey team over there and it's fun going into that building - They have a lot of great players over there, goal scorers. You want to make sure that you play your game to the best you can there, try to eliminate their chances, and keep the puck on our stick as much as we can. We want to make sure that we stick to our game, play with speed, and hopefully it goes our way next game."
Auston Matthews on the 5-2 victory and keeping focus: "I didn't think our start was as good as the last time we played them, but I thought we did a good job defending when we had to and just kind of stayed patient with our game. We got goals when we needed to and obviously extended the lead there in the third, and just played solid defensively. We didn't give them much to kind of get their momentum back on their side to try to get a pushback," - "The process is the same every night. I find when you really, maybe, overthink it and kind of almost want it too much, it almost doesn't go your way. So, I try to approach every game the same... We're winding down here to the last couple of games and I just want to make sure, myself individually and as a team, that we're doing the right things on both sides of the puck - That's really the mindset going in night in and night out."
Notes:
- Auston Matthews extended his goal streak to six games (seven goals), and he also passed Alex Ovechkin (65 in the 2007-08 season) for the most in a single season by an active player.
Matthews also extended his point streak to 12 games (11 goals, 11 assists).
- Tyler Bertuzzi recorded two goals and an assist, both Max Domi and Jake McCabe recorded two assists, and Joseph Woll made a total of 18 saves for Toronto.
- The Maple Leafs have 101 points this season, and it's their third straight season they've earned at least 100 points, as well as the eighth time in their history.
- Nico Hischier and Dawson Mercer recorded a goal and an assist, and Jake Allen made a total of 32 saves for New Jersey.
Mercer had become the fifth player for the Devils this season to score at least 20 goals (Hischier, Jack Hughes, Timo Meier, and Jesper Bratt)
- Nolan Foote had 9:28 of ice time in his season debut for the Devils.
*All photos used by the New Jersey Devils used with permission*
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