Nico Hischier’s 100th Career Goal Highlights New Jersey Devils Win
The New Jersey Devils came into the weekend following a tough loss to the St. Louis Blues. They have been winning a lot lately, but they couldn’t get it done against a bad Blues team on Thursday. This was the first time since Jack Hughes got injured (four games) that the Devils failed to get even a point. Coming into the weekend back-to-back, we learned that Hughes is ready to go.
With the Pittsburgh Penguins hosting, the Devils had something to prove. The New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes keep winning, so the Devils needed a win to keep pace in the Metropolitan Division. Thanks to Evgeni Malkin’s goal, it didn’t get off to a great start. Dawson Mercer found a way to get the game tied up just over a minute later. Nico Hischier and Tomas Tatar collected the assists on this one.
Later, Dougie Hamilton scored a power-play goal to give the Devils the lead. His 16th goal of the season sent the Devils off and running for the rest of the game. It was assisted by Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes, as their three best players love combining for big tallies.
Nico Hischier took over for the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night.
Nico Hischier scored a shorthanded goal before the end of the second period to move the needle toward the Devils for good. Yegor Sharangovich made a great play to help Hischier get the 100th goal of his career. He was stuck on 99 for 10 games. We’ve seen players get into slumps right before a big milestone.
In the 3rd, Jesper Bratt scored an amazing goal because of a tic-tac-toe play with Hughes and Sharangovich. Seeing all of New Jersey’s top players dominate the game against a desperate Penguins team was just what the team needed to win.
After Evgeni Malkin put some pressure on them by scoring his second of the game, Hischier put one into the empty net for his fourth point of the night, and the Devils sealed a 5-2 victory. It’s the first four-point night any Devils player recorded this season. In fact, Andreas Johnsson was the last Devils player to score four points, according to play-by-play man Bill Spaulding.
Hischier has been a great two-way center man all season long. Jack Hughes has led the way offensively but Hischier has been a great second option. Lately, however, he slowed down a little bit. It might be because he was stuck on 99 goals but he was playing well regardless of the offense.
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With that said, he desperately needed a monster offensive night. This four-point night was huge for him. He now has 51 points in 54 games played. With Hughes returning and scoring two points, this was a great day for Hischier to break out again.
We can only hope that Hischier keeps the offense coming like this. He will always be a two-way forward, but we can clearly see the impact that he can have in the offensive zone as well. He is truly a magnificent player.
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Hischier’s next chance to make an impact will come on Sunday night when the Devils take on the Winnipeg Jets. After a handful of games on the road, it will be nice to have them back in Newark for a home game.