Devils' Offense Tames the Champs | GAME STORY

NEWARK, NJ - The Devils put together one of their most complete games of the season and the result was a 5-1 victory against the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers at Prudential Center on Tuesday night.

Arseny Gritsyuk, Dougie Hamilton, Cody Glass, Dawson Mercer and Simon Nemec all scored for the Devils. Goalie Jacob Markstrom stopped 20 pucks. New Jersey dominated the vast majority of the game, out possessing and outshooting the Panthers 33-20.

New Jersey carried its 3-1 lead into the third period and kept the pressure up, taking complete control of the contest and never letting up until reaching the finish line. They held the Panthers to just two shots in the third period. 

The Devils open their seven-game homestand with a victory. 

"We know the situation we're in," Markstrom said. "We have to win hockey games and we have to win a ton of them. It just starts with building our game and our process."

Anton Lundell scored the lone goal for Florida.

Here are some observations from the game:

• The Devils couldn’t buy a goal in the opening 10 minutes of the game. They had several point blank scoring chances off the sticks of Gritsyuk, Timo Meier (2), Nico Hischier, Maxim Tsyplakov and Paul Cotter. And somehow goalie Sergei Bobrovsky denied them all. The Devils had to be thinking they’d never solve him, but thankfully the fellow Russian Gritsyuk did with a snipe at 12:10 of the opening frame.

• It was a special goal for Gritsyuk, scoring against a fellow Russian goaltender that he idolized as a young kid. Gritsyuk looked off Hughes on the 2-on-1 opportunity and sniped it blocker side.

Gritsyuk: “All my life I wanted to score on a Russian goalie. Bobrovsky is first place for me. I scored today but I don’t understand how I scored it. I didn’t see the puck go in. I just looked and I didn’t pass to Jack. I was like, ‘Oh, my God what did I do?’ But for sure, it’s good stuff for me.”

• Things got spicy in the first period after Eetu Luostarinen drilled Jack Hughes in the corner in a hit that knocked the helmet off Hughes’ head. Luostarinen was going to finish his check with Hughes leaned low. The result was an unintended elbow to the head of Hughes which jarred loose the bucket. A huge scrum ensued and the bad blood remained for the remainder of the game.

Keefe: "The hit that Jack takes, all of a sudden the temperature of the game really rises. That's a big part of Florida's game and how they play and they gain momentum off that. They push teams out of the game. I thought we stood our ground incredibly well. We didn't get pushed out of the game, but instead got pulled into the game. And found another level."

• After posting a nine-game scoring streak (11 total points), Hamilton went quiet for four games. But he appears back now. He notched a goal and assist against Florida and now has four points (2g-2a) in three games since returning from the Olympic break.

• Jack Hughes pushed his post-Olympic scoring streak to four games with five assists in that stretch, including two tonight. 

• Glass picked up his 14^th goal of the season with a tip in the second period. The goal tied his previous career high, achieved with Nashville in 2022-23. It was a great decision by forward Lenni Hameenaho to put the puck toward the net for the tip and Glass on the finish.

Glass: "I knew Lenni was going to shoot it. I saw it coming and just tried getting my stick anywhere around it. It found the back of the net so obviously that was a good feeling."

• Dawson Mercer played his 389th straight game for the Devils, moving past Ken Daneyko and into second place in franchise history. He trails only Travis Zajac (401). 

• Devils center Nick Bjugstad played in his 800^th career NHL game. It was fitting as he played Florida, the organization that drafted him and where he started his NHL career.