This one had all the makings of a trap game.
The New Jersey Devils were coming home for the first time this season after winning two of three on the road.
The opponent – the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers – was shorthanded, short on rest, and starting a back-up goalie with an .850 save percentage. But despite falling behind early in the first, New Jersey kept its composure, wore down the Panthers, and sent the sellout crowd of 16,514 home happy with a 3-1 win on Thursday night at Prudential Center.
Timo Meier, not known for his October heroics since joining the Devils, continued to look good in the season’s first week with an assist on Jack Hughes’ tying goal early in the second, before scoring the winner at 6 minutes, 23 seconds of the third.
Nico Hischier added an insurance goal midway through the final period to round out the scoring.
The Good
The big names continued to produce for the Devils. Meier had a goal for the third straight game, tipping Simon Nemec’s point shot past Panthers’ goalie Daniil Tarasov from the bottom of the right wing circle to give the Devils a 2-1 lead. Earlier in the night, he started the play that lead to Jack Hughes breaking his three-game goal drought and notching his first of the year.
Hughes took a pass from his brother, Luke, cut in from the left wing circle, and beat Tarasov from a sharp angle by snapping a shot off Tarasov’s shoulder up and under the crossbar. Until that point, Tarasov, who was making his second start for Florida after coming over from Columbus this summer, had looked near unbeatable.
Tarasov stopped a Luke Hughes’ slap shot on a breakaway, Meier down low, and Jack Hughes on a 2-0n-1 break in the first. Luke Glendening also just missed on a short break after a nifty little saucer pass from Brian Halonen early in the second.
Meanwhile, the Panthers were holding a 1-0 lead, scoring less than two minutes into the game when Evan Rodrigues chipped the rebound of a Brad Marchand past Jake Allen, who got the start despite leaving Monday’s games with cramps.
Another positive: for the first time this season, New Jersey didn’t lose anyone to injury. Or, it didn’t look that way, anyway.
The Bad (was there any?)
Nothing to really complain about tonight, except maybe the officiating. There were some pretty questionable calls including a holding against Luke Hughes and an interference on Jesper Bratt. But the Devils penalty kill was strong, killing off all five Panthers power plays.
And the officials did get the biggest call of the game right, waiving off Sam Reinhart’s goal with 1:17 to go because Anton Lundell made contact with Allen in the crease. Paul Maurice challenged the call and lost on review.
Overall
This is the kind of game the Devils would have lost in previous years: a home game after a long road trip. The Panthers were missing Sasha Barkov, Matt Tkachuk, and Dmitry Kulikov to injury. Florida had lost Wednesday night in Detroit with Sergei Bobrovsky in net and started their backup.
The Panthers came out hard and carried play through most of the first, but New Jersey never panicked, let them wear themselves down, and then counterpunched in the second and third and took advantage of fresher legs to hold on late to get the win.
The Highlights
Please see the full highlights below:
The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats
Up Next
The Devils are back home Saturday afternoon for a 3:30 pm game with the two-time Stanley Cup runners-up, the Edmonton Oilers. It’ll be interesting to see if Sheldon Keefe sticks with Allen a third straight game. He’s been light’s out so far with a 1.20 goals against average and .957 save percentage in five periods of play.
Your Take
What did you make of tonight’s game? Who stood out to you the most? Who are you concerned about? What do you expect against the Oilers this weekend? Hard not to be enjoying these games. Season is off to a promising start.