Here are some observations from the game:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Nico Hischier opened the scoring in the game by driving to the net, locating a free puck in the blue paint and jamming it home. The goal was his 27th of the season and tied Jack Hughes for most on the team. The goal was the 198th of his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 Dawson Mercer thought he had scored his 20th goal of the season halfway through the first period. He drove to the net, found a juicy rebound and slammed it into the vacant net. However, following a coach\u2019s challenge for offside, the goal was waved off. Timo Meier had the puck at the blue line and it crossed by about an inch to negate the tally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mercer would have to wait another 30 minutes of game time\u00a0before getting No. 20. In the third period, Mercer scored a shorthanded goal on a breakaway to tie the game at 3-3. It’s Mercer’s third 20-goal campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Keefe on Mercer: “Good\u00a0to have him get to that marker. I think that’s an important one for any offensive layer. They want to see you get that 2 in front of you.”<\/p>\n
\u2022 After the Mercer’s first-period score was wiped out, Connor Brown reclaimed that 2-0 lead for the Devils by picking up a shorthanded tally late in the first period. Jack Hughes chipped the puck ahead on the\u00a0PK with Brown racing up ice. Brown picked up the puck with speed for a breakaway. As Brown was getting ready to make a deke, Stephan Halliday stick checked him. Brown couldn\u2019t make his move but the puck\u2019s momentum carried it through the five-hole of a confused James Reimer. Without the stick check, Reimer may have been all over the puck. However, the move threw off the goalie and aided in the goal.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Jack Hughes would have a somewhat similar situation of a no-goal situation. Halfway through the third, Reimer went to cover the puck with his glove. Before he could, the puck was knocked away and Hughes put it into the net. However, the referee anticipated it would be covered and blew the whistle, killing the play. So, the Hughes scored did not count. That would have tied the game at 3-3.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 Jack Hughes and\u00a0Jesper Bratt continue to dominant since the Olympic break. In 24 games, Hughes has 15 goals and 41 points while Bratt has nine goals and 30 points.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Nico Daws will get a look in the final two games of the season for New Jersey. He made his first start since October against Ottawa and made three crucial saves in the final minute of regulation to salvage the win.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Daws: “Any time you’re in\u00a0this League it’s fun to start with. Winning games is even better.”<\/p>\n
\u2022 Rookie\u00a0Topias Vilen made his NHL debut against Ottawa. The 23-year-old Finnish rookie played 11:23 minutes of ice time and was a plus-1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vilen: “I was excited for the whole day. Be around the guys and get a skate in this morning. It\u00a0was a fun experience for sure. It was fun to play.”<\/p>\n
\u2022 With already earning a postseason berth, the Senators scratch many of their best players in the contest. Those that sat out included Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Thomas Chabot and Jake Sanderson.<\/p>\n
\u2022 On another note, the game was the final of the Devils’ “Jersey” jersey. It debut in December of 2021 and inspired the Hat hat, Pin pin and Shirt shirt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here are some observations from the game: \u2022 Nico Hischier opened the scoring in the game by driving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5109],"tags":[201,5,576,151,5185,5184,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-551652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-devils","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-new-jersey","11":"tag-new-jersey-devils","12":"tag-newjersey","13":"tag-newjerseydevils","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116396383870428369","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}