The New Jersey Devils have reversed course from a dismal stretch by recording wins in three of their last four games.
New Jersey aims to continue its recent good fortune and salvage a split of its four-game season series against the Capitals on Tuesday when the teams reconvene in Washington.
The Devils stepped away from their home in Newark, N.J., and made the short trek to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford to post a 6-3 win over the rival Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night. The victory — which had 70,328 in attendance as well as a national television audience — moved New Jersey within five points of the third-place Flyers in the Metropolitan Division.
“It was a big game, a big event, four-point game,” said Devils captain Nico Hischier, who collected two goals and an assist. “It was a huge win for us. That’s a team we’re chasing. Everybody was ready to play, and it was all business for us.”
Hischier set the tone early by converting a breakaway just 32 seconds into the game. In addition to his three-point performance, Hischier also led the New Jersey forwards in ice time (22:05) and won 18 of 29 draws.
“It was everything,” Devils defenseman Brendan Smith said of Hischier. “I think when you can have your captain step in and play the way he did, we can just jump on his back. He’s kind of a lead-by-example captain, and boy did he ever lead (on Saturday).”
Hischier has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in his last eight games overall. The top overall pick of the 2017 NHL Draft scored a goal in New Jersey’s 6-4 setback over the Capitals on Oct. 25 and had two goals and an assist in a 6-3 win in Washington on Jan. 3.
The Devils’ Tyler Toffoli scored his team-leading 24th goal on Saturday. He has two goals and two assists in three games versus the Capitals this season.
Washington lost eight of nine games (1-6-2) before posting a 4-3 road victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
“I loved the resiliency,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “This game, for us, as we try to stay in this fight, we had to have two points.”
T.J. Oshie, who scored his 300th career goal on Saturday, underscored the urgency for his team.
“There’s not a point out there that we don’t need right now,” Oshie said, per the Washington Post. “To get it done, to get it done in regulation and really just scratch and claw. … We want to protect leads better than we did tonight, but for the guys to gut it out until the very end, it’s something we’ve seen a lot from this group. We’re going to need it, definitely, going down the stretch here.”
Superstar captain Alex Ovechkin notched an assist on Oshie’s goal to extend his point streak to eight games (six goals, four assists). Ovechkin, however, saw his six-game goal-scoring streak come to a halt.
Ovechkin has totaled five points (one goal, four assists) in three meetings this season with the Devils.
–Field Level Media