Devils Dominate Sens in Tournament Opener | GAME STORY

The excitment was palpable from the moment the puck dropped, the anticipation from a long summer finally letting loose.

The New Jersey Devils rookies were off to a raucous start to the Prospects Challenge against the Ottawa Senators, jumping out to an early 2-0 lead before the game was seven minutes old.

“First period everyone is going a million miles an hour, trying to put your best foot forward,” Cam Squires said. “Once your legs get going you’ve just got to think with your head and stuff and make good plays. Obviously it was nice to get a couple of goals there in the first period, get your legs under you.

Squires opened the scoring, followed defenseman Mikael Diotte while the Devils held an 8-0 shot advantage over the Senators. Squires second goal of the game was a perfectly executed shot, relying on teammate Xavier Parent for the cross-ice pass.

"Playing with good players like (Parent) put that one right on my tape, I’ve just got to put it right in the back of the net,” Squires said post-game.

The 19-year-old Squires had his feet planted in the left circle, clear of any Senators in his way. Squires called out to Parent, who with the puck on his stick in the righthand corner, below the goal line, wired a seam-pass through three Senators onto Squires stick. With an immediate release, Squires gave the Devils a 3-0 with 1:32 remaining in the first period and a 3-0 lead heading into the second.

Less than two minutes into the second, the Devils went up 4-0 on a redirect by Cole Brown who put Will MacKinnon's blueline shot past Ottawa netminder Michael Simpson. Before the period was four minutes old the Deivls had doubled their first period lead to 6-0 with goals from Brown, Parent and Chase Stillman.

Stephen Halliday scored Ottawa's lone goal with 9:32 remaining in the second period, after the Devils had built a 6-0 lead.

Parent added an early third period goal to up the score to 7-1, Max Graham added the Devils eighth goal with less than five minutes to play, Jack Malone scored with 2:54 left and the 9-1 scoreline held through to the final buzzer.

Here are a few impressions from the game...

• Chase Stillman participated in his first Prospects Challenge despite turning pro last season. Stillman arrived ready last year for the tournament but ended up injuring himself and could not participate in the games. With a first year of pro under his belt this season, Stillman was given an 'A' on his journey to lead the rookies alongside Xavier Parent.

For Stillman, he sees this as a big opportunity.

“The way I look at it, it’s my third camp, you get more confidence and I don’t like to think I’m a nervous kid but I definitely have a little nerves coming into camp every year, but this year is a little different for me," he said post-game, "I’ve got a letter on my jersey, management looks at me as a leader and a person to be held responsible for. I think a lot of that boosts my confidence as well. It was definitely nice for my game to show it tonight.”

• The Devils did not concede a shot to the Senators before the first period was over half way completed. The Senators had their first shot on goal register with 9:47 to play in the period, by which time the Devils had already built a 2-0 lead. New Jersey's shot advantage ballooned even more by the end of the first, by a 17-4 margin.

• Parent and Squires led the team with three-point outtings, both putting up two goals and an assist, while Stillman (1g-1a), Malone (1g-1a) and MacKinnon (2a) each had two-point afternoons.

• Xavier Parent's goal was a master class in skating, moving end-to-end with ease before cutting through the bluepaint to finish of the play with New Jersey's fifth goal of the game.

• Defenseman Seamus Casey is taking part in his first pro camp, having signed out of Michigan at the end of last season. Asked about Casey's first game of the Prospects Challenge, Utica head coach offered these comments:

"My first impressions of Seamus was from development camp and in all honesty I thought he was just okay. And he came in here, had a great practice yesterday and his level of composure with the puck… his panic point is really long and I thought he had a great showing. I thought he had a great Game 1 for him and it bodes very well for his upcoming first professional season.”

• What was very impressive was the conectivity in which these Devils rookies played with just a singular practice under their belt. The group looked like a team that was in mid-season form in terms of understanding their teammates tendancies, and being able to connect on plays both offensively and defensively making for an easy afternoon out for head coach Kevin Dineen.

"We had pretty good chemistry, in a group of guys that doesn’t really know eachother that well. But I think the guys did a good job at getting pucks in behind," Squires said, "Our coaching staff gave us a guideline and they just said at the end of the day, play simple. Good players, good plays and we made the best of it.”

• Topias Vilen and Seamus Casey were used on the first and second power play respectively as the point-men, at five-on-five they were grouped as the teams top defensiving pairing.

• Utica head coach Kevin Dineen on the confidence Chase Stillman is seeing in his own game:

“I’m always a believer that there’s a maturity that happens on the ice and off the ice that you just understand what your real goal is. Everything is new the first year in pro and you’re going into your first camp and a lot of action is happening. Now he’s settled in and there’s a level of desire to make an impression and he knows that it’s an uphill battle right now to establish himself as a full-time NHL player, but he’s certainly trending in the right direction.”

What's Next

The Devils rookies are back in action tomorrow night at 7 p.m. They take on the hometown team Buffalo Sabres. You can watch the game on NewJerseyDevils.com or the mobile app. Catherine Bogart hosts the pregame show beginning at 6:55 p.m., followed by the call of the game with Matt Loughlin and Sam Kasan.