Jake Allen Steals The Show As New Jersey Devils Win 2-1 In Shootout Over Vegas Golden Knights

First Period

By FAR the most notable thing about the first period is that it marked the return of Brett Pesce. Pesce was off to a really good start this season, picking up right where he left off with Luke Hughes to form an excellent defense pair. But Pesce was injured in the October 26 game against the Colorado Avalanche and had been out with an apparent hand injury since. What a welcome sight it was to see #22 out on the ice once more.

Aside from Pesce’s return, the first period was notable for actually being a pretty decent 20 minutes for the Devils. They did get outshot 10-8, but New Jersey generated their fair share of quality chances at 5-on-5. Jonas Siegenthaler taking a penalty before the game was one minute old really didn’t help, but after a solid kill, the Devils held the better of the play for most of the opening frame.

The goaltenders did a good job to keep things scoreless through the first. Jake Allen had to make a terrific save on a two-on-one to keep the Knights off the board. On the other side, former guest of the government Carter Hart made a nice save on Ondrej Palat, though honestly I put that more on Palat firing a shot directly into Hart than Hart making a good save. Nevertheless, both goalies were on their game in the first.

Vegas had a bit of a flurry late in the opening frame, but New Jersey survived that to get to the locker room scoreless.

Second Period

The Golden Knights were on the front foot early in the middle frame. The Hischier line got pinned in the zone on a marathon shift, and while Vegas got a couple good looks on the shift, the New Jersey defense weathered the storm and eventually got a clear. Later on the Hischier line had a shift like that of their own, generating some high quality looks for what seemed like forever, though they couldn’t find the back of the net.

But you know who could find the back of the net? Connor Brown. He combined with Cody Glass on an extremely effective forecheck that saw Brown steal the puck near the corner, charge toward the net all alone, and make a sick move to hook a shot around Hart and in:

It was a gorgeous goal, one New Jersey sorely needed.

The game calmed down a little bit from there, but with a little less than five minutes to go, Hischier drew a tripping penalty on Mitch Marner to send the Devils to the power play. It was actually a pretty lousy man-advantage, with Vegas producing a couple shorthanded looks early in the 5-on-4. The second unit put some decent looks on net, but with one second to go in the power play, Paul Cotter was called for retaliating against Zach Whitecloud to send the Devils to the kill. What was he retaliating for? Probably the two blatant crosschecks (one by Whitecloud, one by Noah Hanafin) that went bewilderingly uncalled by the officials. Hey, the game isn’t going to manage itself!

Vegas held the zone for basically the entire power play, but couldn’t really crack New Jersey’s kill. And when they did manage to get to the inside, Allen was there to make the stop. The Devils successfully killed the call, as Cotter jumped back on with about a minute left in the middle frame. Vegas continued to hold the zone until the period ended, but couldn’t get any good looks at the net. New Jersey exited the second period still holding their 1-0 lead.

Third Period

The third period got off to a bit of a choppy start, but eventually Vegas started to take control. New Jersey did a decent job keeping them to the outside for the most part, though at one point Brenden Saad found himself all alone right in front of the net. Fortunately he shot the puck right into Allen, who poke checked the rebound out of harm’s way. Aside from that, New Jersey held it together well, and eventually the Devils put together some offense themselves.

As the period wore on, the Devils started to play the “Get it deep and survive the next shift” game. Which is a dangerous game to play considering how much zone time you concede when you do that, but through the first half of the period it was working. The shot totals and Expected Goals were starting to really tilt Vegas’ way by the 10-minute mark, but the Devils maintained solid defensive structure and held their 1-0 edge as the game was ticking away.

From about the 10-minute mark to the 6-minute mark, the Devils actually started to push for offense again. The Hischier line generated some decent zone time, as did the Glass line. But they couldn’t find the insurance marker. Then with about five minutes left to go, Juho Lammikko got tagged for a tripping call to send the Devils to a crucial late penalty kill. And wouldn’t you know it, about 50 seconds into the kill, Pavel Dorofeyev one-timed a blast home to finally crack Allen and tie the game at 1-1 with about four minutes left in regulation.

New Jersey almost responded immediately, as Palat created a turnover in Vegas’ zone and backhanded a pass to a cutting Glass all alone. Glass skated down the slot and fired a shot that Hart swallowed up though, so the game remained tied. This was followed up by the Hischier line creating a ton of dangerous looks on the next shift, but they couldn’t find the go-ahead goal either.

With about two minutes left, Sheldon Keefe did something I really didn’t like: He send the fourth line out for a shift. Considering it was their penalty that allowed Vegas to tie the game, and they’re, you know, the fourth line, I thought this was a very avoidable mistake. Thankfully it didn’t burn the Devils, as they settled their shift with no harm done.

New Jersey iced the puck twice in the final 30 seconds of the period, but thankfully this didn’t hurt the Devils either, as the frame ended 1-1 to send this game to overtime. Because when a game was scheduled for 10pm and didn’t start until about 10:22pm anyway, why wouldn’t we have overtime?

Overtime

The Golden Knights controlled the opening faceoff and the first 90ish seconds of possession, but they couldn’t do anything with all the possession time. New Jersey took the puck after that and did basically the same: Lots of possession but no chances. Tomas Hertl eventually led a 2-on-1 down the ice, but Allen made the stop for the first big opportunity of overtime.

Then with 1:53 left, Dawson Mercer got called for hooking Mark Stone to send the Devils to the penalty kill once more. On the 4-on-3, the Knights hit three posts and generally looked pretty dangerous while holding possession the entire time, but the Devils somehow held to send the contest to a shootout. Because again, why not at this point?

Shootout

Paul Cotter was stopped on a deke.

Dorofeyev was saved on a wrister.

Bratt scored on an amazing deke and backhander!

Stone was saved on a wrister. Both him and Dorofeyev tried to go glove side on Allen but Allen snatched the shot each time.

Hamilton was stopped on a wrister.

Marner tried to deke around Allen, but Allen poke-checked it off his stick. In the process, the puck ricocheted off Marner’s skate and into the net. But the “goal” was immediately waved off for being struck twice, which is illegal in the shootout.

The Devils win!

The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats

Very Quick Hits

Considering this game started at approximately 4:38am and went all the way to a shootout, I just do not have much more analysis in me at this point. Forgive me, I’m only human.

We’ll do this very quickly then:

• I cannot begin to tell you just how happy I was to see Pesce back in the lineup. He paired up with Hughes once again and I thought he looked like he didn’t miss a beat. His underlying numbers weren’t amazing at around 47% xGF% at 5-on-5, but I still thought it was a quality return to action for Pesce. Hopefully he continues to get back up to speed in a hurry.
• Jake Allen, take a bow. He allowed the late equalizer, but he was otherwise brilliant. He made 36 saves on 37 shots, and according to Natural Stat Trick, he saved a remarkable 3.75 Goals Above Expected.
• Jesper Bratt, take a bow as well. His filthy move in the shootout made the difference.
• Nico Hischier, you should take a bow as well. He was absolutely all over the ice tonight, generating high-quality chance after high-quality chance. He didn’t score this evening, but he certainly deserved to. His 54.77 xGF% at 5-on-5 looks good enough, but considering he was matched up against the Mark Stone-Mitch Marner line, it was even more impressive than it looks. Hischier was a dynamo tonight.
• I really do feel like Cody Glass and Connor Brown have some serious chemistry. Once Arseni Gritsyuk comes back, I think those three can really be an excellent third line.

Next Time Out

The Devils are back at it on Friday when they play the Mammoth in Utah. Puck drop is scheduled for 9:00pm.

Your Take

What did you make of tonight’s game? And what do you expect next time out? And what did you think of Brett Pesce in his return? As always, thanks for reading!