Devils score four unanswered goals in overtime victory
Hischier nets game-winning goal to give New Jersey a 5-4 win over Vegas Friday night
The New Jersey Devils used a season-high 41 shots on goal in regulation against the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday night to surmount a comeback after falling behind 3-0 early in the first period. The incredible comeback gives the Devils their first overtime win of the season and ends a two game slide with a 5-4 victory against Vegas.
Here are 10 takeaways from the game:
1. Devils star forward Taylor Hall missed his first game of the season, sitting out the game against the Golden Knights with a lower body injury. Hall was kept out of practice on Thursday by team training staff for "precautionary reasons," and while he was on the ice temporarily for morning skate, he left before the end of the session. John Hynes confirmed Hall had been dealing with some lower-body soreness.
This season, Hall has played in all of New Jersey's 29 games and leads the charge with 31 points. The Devils left-winger has eight goals and 23 assists. Hall remains one goal away from 200 in his career.
With Hall out of the lineup, Marcus Johansson was bumped up to top-line duty with Nico Hischier and Kyle Palmieri.
The rest of the lineup looked as follows:
Wood-Zajac-Coleman
Quenneville-Zacha-Bratt
Boyle-Seney-Stafford
Greene-Severson
Butcher-Vatanen
Mueller-Lovejoy
2. Prior to the start of the game against Vegas, Devils management made the decision to call up John Quenneville from Binghamton. The 22-year-old has played 19 games for Binghamton this season, where he's recorded nine goals and ten assists for 19 points, with 20 penalty minutes. Quenneville started the 2018-19 season in New Jersey, where he was held pointless in five games.
3. Travis Zajac was the first to get the Devils on the board against the Golden Knights. On the power play, Zajac received a pass from Marcus Johansson at the goal line, and as he was falling to the ice slapped the puck home past Vegas netminder Marc-Andre Fleury.
Zajac's 10th of the year came on the power play, a third power play goal by the Devils in their last four games as the man-advantage looks to regain its dependability from the start of the season.
4. Miles Wood helped the Devils complete a two-goal second period with his third goal of the year. Wood received a nifty drop pass from Blake Coleman, with Wood streaking in through the slot to catch Fleury off-guard. Wood, who scored his first goal since November 26th at Florida, went careening into the glass with excitement in celebration. Wood's goal cut Vegas' lead to 4-2 at 10:21 of the middle frame.
Tweet from @NJDevils: Right place, quick snap, and it's a 🚨! @MilesWood4 slaps home his 3rd of the season. #VGKvsNJD pic.twitter.com/ptH3TXc1NG
Coleman and Zajac, Wood's line mates, were credited with the assists.
5. With his assist on Wood's goal, Zajac registered his 103rd multi-point game of his career, and his second in the past four games. Zajac now sits alone in fifth place all-time in Devils history for multi-point games. (Credit: Craig Seiden, NJD Radio Statistician).
6. The assist was also Zajac's 480th point as a member of the New Jersey Devils, as he continues to climb up the Devils all-time points leader board. He is four points away from tying Scott Gomez for fourth all-time in franchise history (484).
7. The Devils held the Golden Knights to just six shots in the second period and while that might seem very low, it still doesn't break a season record for New Jersey. The record is two shots on goal versus Columbus earlier in the year.
New Jersey was close, however, with Keith Kinkaid seeing just two shots in the first 19 minutes of the second period, to nearly break the season record. The Golden Knights spoiled that party, with a last-second surge in shots, with four in the final 21 seconds of the period.
8. Kyle Palmieri got the crowd on their feet at the 6:24 mark of the third period when his 17th goal of the season got the Devils within one against Vegas. Palmieri's wraparound attempt and goal went unassisted to draw the Devils within one (4-3).
Tweet from @NJDevils: That wrap around is a thing of beauty, @kylepalmieri 👀😍 pic.twitter.com/E3oB973Dxi
Palmieri now has six points (five goals, one assist) in a four-game point streak and leads New Jersey with 17 goals.
9. Despite a 3-0 deficit early in the game, the Devils mounted a heck of an effort and it was Brett Seney who scored the goal to tie the game for the first time at the 14:55 mark of the third period.
Tweet from @NJDevils: Here's the goal that sent this game into overtime hockey presented by @NJLottery! #VGKvsNJD pic.twitter.com/mHkwGlDg0G
Seney was in fact credited with the goal, as the last Devil to touch the puck with both teams crashing Fleury's crease. The puck sat calmly in the blue paint, was tipped by a Vegas player and went in off his teammate William Karlsson for a Vegas own-goal that would tie the game at four.
10. Cory Schneider made the start in net against the Golden Knights, it was Schneider's second start in three games and his first at Prudential Center this season. The start didn't go as he would have hopped, playing just the first 9:36 of the game. Schneider gave up four goals on seven shots, before being replaced by Keith Kinkaid.
