Here are some observations from the game:
• Connor Brown earned his 300th NHL point with his secondary assist on Jesper Bratt's second goal.
• Nico Hischier is closing in on 1000 faceoff wins this season. He had another nine against the Red Wings to bring his league-leading total to 985. Hischier also leads the league in faceoffs taken, with 1763. Second to Hischier is Carolina’s Jordan Staal, who trails Hischier by a significant margin with 1482.
Hischier finished second in the league last season with 987 wins, trailing only Sidney Crosby's 1016.
• The Red Wings, who were desperate to keep their playoff hopes alive, came out firing on all cylinders, outshooting New Jersey 9-0 after the opening 10 minutes of the game. Jake Allen was superb, especially with the Red Wings on the power play early, stopping all four shots the Devils faced shorthanded in the opening nine and a half minutes.
On the Red Wings' 10th shot, with 10:17 remaining in the period, Justin Faulk put Detroit up 1-0, and 10-0 in shots.
• But it's about quality, not quantity, because the Wings wouldn't hold on to their lead very long. Fifty-nine seconds after the Faulk goal, Jesper Bratt picked up the puck off the halfwall in the DZone and chipped it up the ice to Hughes, who was skating up the right wing. Connor Brown rushed up the ice with Hughes, with Jacob Bernard-Docker the lone Red Wing left to defend.
Hughes did have the option to pass to Brown, but elected to take the shot, his wrister, wiring its way past John Gibson to tie the game.
• Cody Glass continues to build on his career-year, with his 19th goal of the season.
"I have a role here," Glass said "When you put your mind away from scoring goals and I’m here to take DZone faceoffs, be good defensively and take some of the stress off the top players, defensive-wise, once you forget about points and scoring, they kind of just find your stick and it becomes easier that way.”
• Jesper Bratt's first goal wasn't quite a typical Bratt goal. This one came off causing some confusion with the high-cycle and defensemen getting involved. Bratt explains:
"We’ve been talking a lot about that too, having the D drive through and create some time and space, especially for guys like me and Jack to roll high and create a lot of confusion, man-on-man defense,” Bratt said of his first goal. “Kind of just getting different guys boxing out on their team, have some forwards play defense, things like that. We’ve been talking about creating a high cycle to get some confusion. I just tried to sift it in there, and there were a lot of guys and bodies in front. I know it’s hard as a goalie to see that puck.”
• The Devils' victory put the Eastern Conference playoff picture into a little more clarity, securing the Ottawa Senators and the Boston Bruins spot in the post-season with Detroit's elimination.
• One day after being called up from Utica, Nico Daws backed up Jake Allen in net. Daws will start on Sunday, at home, against the Ottawa Senators.
• Defenseman Topias Vilen took warmups with the Devils, one day after being called up, but did not play. He will make his NHL debut on Sunday, Keefe confirmed, against the Ottawa Senators.
