On Thursday, November 6, the New Jersey Devils hosted the Montreal Canadiens at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
This was the Devils’ first home game back since being on the road for four previous games across the west coast. Devils forward Jesper Bratt scored the game-winning goal to secure the Devils’ two points against the Montreal Canadiens, 4-3.
Devils forward Cody Glass was out on injured reserve for quite some time, but happened to make his return on Thursday night against the Canadiens.
In the first period, Glass scored the Devils’ first goal of the night just nearly two minutes into the period; there were no assists to Glass’s snapshot. Montreal Canadiens’ forward Kirby Dach tied the game nearly a minute later with a tip-in goal. By the end of the first, no further goals were scored, and the game remained tied at 1-1.
Leading into the second period, the Devils were quick to score first; just over eight minutes into the second, alternate captain Ondrej Palat scored his first goal of the season. Devils forward Jack Hughes picked up his seventh assist on Palats’ goal, and defenseman Simon Nemec picked up his eighth assist. Tremendous growth for the young defenseman, Nemec, as he has already had a great start to his third NHL season. Dougie Hamilton had suffered some type of lower-body injury with minutes remaining in the second. There is currently no further update on Hamilton, but it is planned that he will be evaluated sometime on Friday, per head coach Sheldon Keefe. Concluding the second period, the Devils led the game 2-1 against Montreal.
Commencing the third and final period of the night, Montreal struck back. Jake Evans scored his second goal of the season, just shy of a minute (59 seconds) into the third. Evans’ wrist shot tied the game up for Montreal, 2-2. With over half of the period remaining, the Canadiens took the lead 3-2 with a backhanded goal scored by Oliver Kapanen.
With a minute and seven seconds remaining, Timo Meier tied the game 3-3 with a wrist shot and pushed the game into overtime. Jack Hughes earned his second assist of the night and his eighth of the season, along with Jesper Bratt, who has now earned his 10th assist of the season. Hughes has also earned himself a two-point night; a consistent player who has had an impeccable start to his seventh NHL season.
Heading into overtime, at 1:33 in, Jesper Bratt scored the game-winning goal on a breakaway to beat the Montreal Canadiens, concluding the game 4-3. Not only did Jesper Bratt score the game-winning goal, but he was also credited with a two-point night and was named the first star of the night at the Prudential Center.
The New Jersey Devils had 28 attempted shots on goal; the Montreal Canadiens had 19. The Devils won 19 out of the 44 face-offs; the Canadiens had a higher advantage of 25.
With the win, the Devils have now won six in a row at home to start the season and became the first team in the NHL to reach 10 wins. This was a great win in New Jersey for the Devils, resulting in happy fans and a free Chic-Fil-A item per your Devils scoring first!
The New Jersey Devils will next host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday, November 8th at 12:30 p.m..
