After a split of the first two games down south, a loss in the opener against the Hurricanes in Raleigh and a win over the Lightning in Tampa, the Devils headed up north to Columbus looking to spoil the Blue Jackets’ home opener. Both teams had come into Monday’s tilt 1-1-0, tied for fifth in the Metro Division.
The Devils would turn to Jake Allen to guard the crease in his first action of the regular season. He would be up against the Jackets’ 24-year-old netminder Jet Greaves to open the home slate for the Blue Jackets’ 25th anniversary season.
Despite a rough start where they were outshot drastically, the Devils were able to pull out a 3-2 win over the Blue Jackets on the road.
The Jackets would dominate the shot count early and even get a four-minute power play as Dougie Hamilton got former Devil Miles Wood with a high stick. However, the Devils would kill off that penalty and a later penalty to Brett Pesce before the clock struck Timo Time.
Timo Meier took a handoff from Jack Hughes off a pass from Jesper Bratt and fired a laser beam past Greaves from the right circle to give the Devils a 1-0 lead after one period.
The Jackets would answer back about midway through the second period as Jack Hughes lost the puck and Kirill Marchenko would carry the puck on a breakaway, launching it past Jake Allen (24 shots faced/23 saves – No Decision) to knot the game up at one after the middle frame.
Allen would leave the game in the third due to cramping, the extent of which is unknown. He would hand the reins to Jacob Markstrom (9 shots faced/8 saves – Win, 2-1-0) and the offense would take it the rest of the way as Dawson Mercer would fire an Arseni Grtisyuk pass by Jet Greaves to make it 2-1. Mercer would then add an empty net marker with 56.4 left in regulation to seal it in a 3-2 Devils victory to put Jersey 2-1-0 on the young season, giving the team much-needed momentum heading into Thursday’s home opener against Florida.
The Devils open up their home slate Thursday night at Prudential Center against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers. Puck drop is slated for 7 p.m.
