Devils Down Hometown Sabres | GAME STORY

BUFFALO, NY - The New Jersey Devils prospects held their own against the Buffalo Sabres prospects on Friday night. The Sabres were a group icing seven players who all played together last season in the American Hockey League with Rochester. Comparatively, the Devils had just one player, Jack Malone, who played regularly for the Utica Comets in 2024-25. For a group that has just one game of experience together, the night prior against Columbus, the Devils held their own against a group that had built in chemistry.

That did not stop the Devils from continuing to build their own chemistry and taking the Sabres to task with a 4-2 victory.

“I was really impressed with teh group, did a lot of things well as a group,” Utica head coach Ryan Parent said. “Especially getting down early, just having a little bit of resiliency in the first period. Guys played the right way and they got rewarded for it.”

Shane Lachance scored the go-ahead goal on the power play with 12:55 remaining in the third period, scoring his second goal of the tournament.

Lachance added to New Jersey's goal total after two first-period goals by New Jersey.

Lenni Hämeenaho scored a beauty of a goal to tie the game up at 1-1 late in the first period. It was Hämeenaho's first point of the tournament as he continues to settle in. Hämeenaho left Sabres Noah Ostlund staring at the puck, unable to defend against his quickness in front of the crease. The Finnish forward snapped a backhand past Buffalo netminder Topias Leinonen, before Brian Carrabes extended New Jersey's lead to 2-1 with 1:39 remaining in the first period.

“I thought he was a driver for us tonight,” Parent said of Hämeenaho. “It was a really skilled team, a lot of good players on the otherside, but I thought he was a driver, did a lot of things well.”

Parent is getting his first look at the Finnish forward and decided to use him in all situations, giving him added penalty kill minutes.

“In terms of penalty kill, I know he hadn’t killed so much in the past two years, but in previous on all his junior teams he was a top PKer," Parent said. "It’s something that we want to help develop in his game and it’s a big part for a player, especially one trying to make the next level, to find a little bit of a niche and that’s something, always something you’ve got to work on with a guy and give him experience when you can.”

Nathan Lecompte, who is at the prospect camp on an invite, scored the Devils' fourth goal to seal the win. Lecompte has three goals and an assist in his two games at the tournament.

Jakub Malek played his first game in North America, backstopping New Jersey, making 24 saves on 26 shots against.

"He looked great, wasn’t a lot of times we were nervous watching him," Parent said, "Pucks just seemed to stick to him and I thought he gave us a lot of comfort when he was in net.”

Radim Mrtka and Matous Kucharcik scored for Buffalo.