New Jersey Devils: Getting A Huge Division Win Was Much-Needed

The New Jersey Devils came into Friday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in desperate need of a division win. They played well in most of their recent losses but losing is losing. Even worse, they are losing in regulation, and any lead they had in the Metropolitan Division is gone. In fact, if the Penguins won this game, they’d be tied in the standings. This was a very important two points.

Things didn’t get off to the best start as Evgeni Malkin took some momentum that the Devils built and ruined it. He took advantage of the Devils’ mistake and scored on his breakaway chance. Sounds familiar, right?

The Devils didn’t falter from there as they just kept playing their game. Jack Hughes scored a goal on the power play to get the game tied at one. Hughes’s goal was his 19th of the season and his 40th point in 36 games. He has been very impressive all season long.

The Penguins once again took a lead when Jeff Carter scored one right after a Penguins power play expired. It won’t count as a power play goal, but it was created as a result of the man advantage. Other than that, the Devils penalty kill was stupendous on Friday night. We’ll get to that in a moment.

Dougie Hamilton tied the game later on which was helped along by a great play made by Dawson Mercer. It was desperately needed for Hamilton, who already had a goal waved off earlier in the game.

The New Jersey Devils needed someone to make a big play to win this game.

A couple of minutes later, as the second period was expiring, Nico Hischier scored a goal short-handed to give the Devils a 3-2 lead. Leaders lead, and Hischier led in this game.

The Devils were able to hang onto that lead during the third period before Jack Hughes scored his 20th of the season into the empty net. It was a great game for New Jersey to get back in the win column.

One thing that was really notable about the game is the number of penalties that were called. The officials couldn’t put their whistles away for anything in this game. Some of the penalties were deserved, but there’s no way the Devils actually deserved to be on the penalty for 18 minutes. That’s preposterous.

Somehow, the Devils took nine penalties and killed them all. That is tremendous. On the other hand, Hughes’s power-play goal was the one that New Jersey scored on six tries. This game felt like it was barely played at 5v5. The fact that the Devils killed nine penalties is impressive and a big reason that they won. They probably would have lost if they weren’t perfect on the PK.

A player who didn’t have a point but deserves some recognition is Damon Severson. Thanks to the Devils constantly taking penalties and injuries to Ryan Graves and Johnn Marino, Severson played over 30 minutes on Friday night. He has had some ups and downs lately, but he was tremendous in this game.

Now, the Devils get the two points, and the Penguins got nothing. It was a hard-fought game by both sides, and the Devils needed to win a game like that so bad.

Now, they await the Carolina Hurricanes, who will travel to Newark looking for their 11th straight win. It will be a battle once again.