On Wednesday, December 17, the New Jersey Devils hit the road for a late-night matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights. A 10 p.m. start on the West Coast. Devils right winger Jesper Bratt scored the shootout winner against Vegas in a 2-1 victory.
It has been a rough last two weeks for the Devils, losing more than winning, however, this win over Vegas has ultimately brought back that spark to endure and put up a good fight as a team. With only 34 games played so far out of 82, there is still a lot of time to bring back a winning stance and become a playoff contender. The Devils have been playing signifcantly well despite numerous injuries and family leave amongst the players.
The team welcomed back defenseman Brett Pesce after being out for quite sometime due to an upper-body; hand injury. Pesce was paired with defenseman Luke Hughes.
Devils goaltender Jake Allen was a phennomenal assest to the Devils win. Allen withheld a 0.92 Goals Against Average and a .973 save percentage, becoming the first star of the game.
As the first period commenced, the game had not begun until 22 minutes after 10 p.m., (7 p.m. pacific time)–a late start in Vegas which did not hold the Devils back from securing the 2-1 win.
The entire first period had gone scoreless by both teams, however, the Devils gone to the powerplay once and killed a penalty as well.
Heading into the second period, nearly five minutes of play, Devils right winger Connor Brown found the back of the net and scored a wrist shot goal against Vegas, putting the Devils up 1-0. The unassisted goal opened the scoring period of the night–the Devils are 7-0-0 everytime that Brown scores in a game.
The third period began and happened to feel the most intense as the Devils were up 1-0, ultimately having the chance to win the game one and done. However, with less than six minutes to go in the third period, Vegas came back and tied the game 1-1. For Vegas, Pavel Dorofeyev scored his 14th goal of the season with assists from Mark Stone and Tomas Hertl. This goal sent the game into overtime.
During overtime, both teams confidently defended one another, even as Devils forward Dawson Mercer recieved a hooking penalty against Mark Stone; they were able to successfully kill the penalty. Once overtime ended, the game carried on into a shootout.
In the shootout, Devils center Paul Cotter was first to go, his wrist shot was saved by Carter Hart. Vegas sent out Dorofeyev, however his wrist shot was saved by Jake Allen. Devils right winger Jesper Bratt was set to go at the beginning of the second shootout round, his backhand goal came in clutch and won the game for the Devils, 2-1.
Following Bratt, attempts by Stone, Dougie Hamilton, and Mitch Marner were all attempted but saved by the projected goaltenders.
The New Jersey Devils will next face the Utah Mammoth on Friday, December 19 at 9 p.m. EST. The game can be found via channels: ESPN+, MSG2, and Utah 16.
