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Two Wins Tucked Away: Mercer Powers Devils to Victory Ahead of Home Opener

  Photo: Andrew MacLean The New Jersey Devils survived a chaotic, late-game flurry in Columbus to secure their second straight victory on Monday night, defeating the Blue Jackets 3-2 to cap off their opening road trip. The star of the dramatic finish was forward Dawson Mercer, who netted a pair of goals—including the decisive empty-net marker—that momentarily gave the Devils a two-goal cushion before the Blue Jackets scored with 20 seconds left to keep the tension high until the final horn. Having collected four points out of a possible six on the road, New Jersey now turns its focus to the familiar roar of the Prudential Center crowd. The team finally heads home to Newark, where they will open their home slate on Thursday night with a pivotal early-season clash against the formidable Florida Panthers. New Jersey Devils Lineup: Palat - Hughes - Bratt Meier - Hischier - Mercer Gritsyuk - Glass - Brown Cotter - Glendening - Halonen Hughes - Pesce Siegenthaler - Hamilton Dillon - Neme...
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Levshunov Makes NHL Debut, Wedgewood Walls Blackhawks

 







The chilling mountain air in Colorado seemed to freeze the Blackhawks' offensive efforts solid, despite two periods of hard-fought, scoreless hockey, as the Avalanche, with a ruthless efficiency that has become their hallmark, skated to a 3-0 shutout victory on Monday, March 10th, extending their win streak to a formidable six games while simultaneously shattering Chicago's five-game point streak. Artyom Levshunov's NHL debut revealed a solid, well-rounded performance, with a noticeable impact on both ends of the ice. Scott Wedgewood delivered a masterful performance in net, securing his second shutout of the season and eighth of his NHL career with a composed 21-save effort. The Avalanche will head out on the road for two games, starting with the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday, before returning home to host the Dallas Stars. The Blackhawks continue their road trip on Thursday in San Jose, hoping to make a comeback after this shutout.


Colorado Avalanche Lineup:

Lehkonen - MacKinnon - Necas

Drouin - Nelson - Nichushkin

Kiviranta - Coyle - Colton

Wood - Drury - Vesey


Toews - Makar

Lindgren - Manson

Girard - Johnson


Wedgewood

Blackwood


Chicago Blackhawks Lineup:

Dach - Bedard - Dickinson

Teravainen - Donato - Mikheyev

Slaggert - Nazar - Foligno

Reichel - Veleno - Bertuzzi


Del Mastro - Murphy

Vlasic - Kaiser

Martinez - Levshunov


Knight

Soderblom


After two scoreless periods and what appeared to be a goal by Martin Necas in the first period, but was successfully challenged for offsides, Atturi Lehkonen found the back of the net early in the opening minute of the third frame. Nathan MacKinnon carried the puck around behind the net, coming out from the right side, and skated down near the blue line to pass it off to Devon Toews. From the blue line far side, Toews fired and Lehkonen redirected it past Spencer Knight for his 27th goal of the season to put the Avalanche ahead 1-0. Necas put one past Knight at 16:33 of the third to make it 2-0 from the left hash marks, going top shelf over Knight's glove on a wrist shot after he took a pass from MacKinnon, who got ahold of the puck by the right boards before skating up and finding Necas in the left circle. With 54 seconds remaining in regulation, Joel Kiviranta struck the empty Chicago net for the 3-0 final.





Nick Foligno on performance and the loss: "That's what sucks. You feel like you probably play one of your better games in a while, even though we've gotten points in the past few. We were dialed in. We were dominating some aspects of the game. That's a good team over there, obviously, and when you don't get any run support, it's tough to beat a team like that, that you kind of let hang around, and they have enough skill to make you pay. That's what they did tonight. A good lesson for us, but we got to be proud of the way we were playing, especially the past six here."





Notes:

- Nathan MacKinnon had a two-point night, which had gotten him to the 1,000-point mark. He's the fourth-fastest active player to reach this mark following Connor McDavid (659 GP), Sidney Crosby (757 GP), and Evgeni Malkin (848 GP). ...MacKinnon is the 100th player in NHL history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. ...He also became the third player to post 1,000 points in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history, joining both Joe Sakic (1,641) and Peter Stastny (1,048).

- MacKinnon extended his home point streak to 20 games.

- The Avalanche swept a six-game homestand for the first time in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history.

- CO: 39-24-2, CHI: 20-36-9

- Spencer Knight made a total of 18 saves for Chicago.

- The Blackhawks have lost two in a row and three of four.

- This is the first time this season where the Blackhawks were shutout. Last season, they were shutout 12 times.

- In his NHL debut, Artyom Levshunov had six shot attempts, three shots on goal, and two blocked shots in 20:55 of ice time.

- Jason Dickinson made his return to the lineup after having missed 11 games with a high ankle sprain. He finished minus-2 in 17:16 of ice time.

- During the third period, it appeared that Connor Bedard was going for The Michigan but decided against it.

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