Blackwood makes 46 saves, Devils shut out Flyers

PHILADELPHIA -- Mackenzie Blackwood made 46 saves and got his first NHL assist for the New Jersey Devils in a 5-0 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday.

It was Blackwood's second shutout of the season, and his assist on Damon Severson's second-period power-play goal was the first point by a Devils goalie since Keith Kinkaid had an assist Feb. 18, 2018.
"I think the team did a great job of limiting rebounds and boxing out and taking care of the secondary stuff," Blackwood said. "I felt really good."
WATCH: [All Devils vs. Flyers highlights]
Miles Wood scored two goals for New Jersey (19-24-10), which has earned at least one point in five straight games (2-0-3), tying a season high (4-0-1) set Dec. 23-Jan. 2.
Philadelphia (29-18-7) lost in regulation for the first time in six games (4-1-1). Brian Elliott was replaced by Alex Lyon at 4:23 of the third period after he allowed four goals on 13 shots. Lyon allowed a goal on the only shot he faced.
"At the end of the day, everything that could go wrong, did," Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said.
Blackwood played for the first time since Jan. 30 and credited the extra time he's spent working in practice with goaltending coach Roland Melanson for his performance.
"Everyone wants to play all the time, but taking the one positive out of it was being able to work on the little details of my game," he said. "I think that really helped me tonight."
It also helped that Blake Coleman scored to give the Devils a 1-0 lead 13 seconds into the game.

"That can take the wind out of the sails, scoring on the first shot," Coleman said. "Anytime you can put a team on its heels early, it's going to create that confidence and put a little doubt in their minds."
Flyers defenseman Matt Niskanen said, "It is a tough way to start the game. You get behind the eight ball, and we did not have our best stuff tonight, so it's an uphill climb."
Severson made it 2-0 at 1:39 of the second. Blackwood stopped a Philadelphia dump-in and moved the puck to Severson behind the net, and the defenseman went end to end and scored from the right face-off circle.
Pavel Zacha scored shorthanded to make it 3-0 at 1:10 of the third.
Wood scored unassisted on a breakaway to put New Jersey ahead 4-0 at 4:23, chasing Elliott, and then made it 5-0 at 11:16.

Devils coach Alain Nasreddine said he was pleased to see them keep pushing with the lead rather than sit back after they blew a 3-0 lead in a 5-4 shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.
"We knew they were going to press, got a lot of shots on net, but another point of emphasis lately has been our defensive game, and I thought guys defended well, defended hard, and we capitalized on our chances," Nasreddine said. "It was something we talked about after the Montreal game and going into the third period. I thought it was pretty good response."

They said it

"You can go into a game and not give up any power-play goals, but sometimes you give teams momentum, and tonight was the other way around. Thought we gained a lot of momentum with our penalty kill, we got their fans on top of their team, and [Pavel Zacha's shorthanded goal] was a big one." -- Devils coach Alain Nasreddine
"We were rolling there for a bit, and when you lay a stinker like this, it doesn't happen often. We need to lean on our veterans and come out kicking next time." -- Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, who was minus-1 with three shots on goal in 18:23 in his first game since Jan. 7 following arthroscopic surgery on his left knee

Need to know

Blackwood's 46 saves were the second most in a shutout in the NHL this season (Carter Hutton, 47 in Buffalo Sabres' 3-0 win against the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 17) and in Devils history (Martin Brodeur, 51 in 1-0 shootout win against the New York Rangers on Jan. 12, 2010). ... Severson has five points (two goals, three assists) during a five-game point streak. ... Travis Zajac had assist on Coleman's goal to tie Kirk Muller for sixth in assists in New Jersey history (335). ... Philadelphia forward Jakub Voracek played his 900th NHL game, and defenseman Ivan Provorov played his 300th. ... It was the second time in Flyers history they had at least 46 shots in a shutout loss; they had 48 in a 3-0 loss to the Chicago Black Hawks on Feb. 15, 1969.

What's next

Devils: Host the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; MSG+, FS-W, NHL.TV)
Flyers: At the Washington Capitals on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, NBCSWA, NBCSP, NHL.TV)