The New Jersey Devils faced their rival New York Rangers on Monday afternoon in one of the most anticipated matchups of the NHL’s regular season. With most people home for the holidays, the sold-out crowd of 16,514 had a playoff-like feel. The Devils were the ones who came out victorious, dominating the Rangers by a score of 5-0. Jacob Markstrom notched his second shutout in a row. The Devils are now 23-11-3; the Rangers fall to 16-17-1.
With the Rangers struggling recently, they opted to scratch Chris Kreider, who had just two goals in his last 13 games. In an effort to spark them early, Vincent Trocheck dropped the gloves with Paul Cotter. It was Cotter who got the better of it, though, taking Trocheck down after a spirited bout. Then, 89 seconds later, Jack Hughes scored to give the Devils a 1-0 lead. That’s where the score remained at the horn, but not before Brenden Dillon and Sam Carrick fought each other in a pretty even (and intense) tilt.
The Rangers got themselves into penalty trouble in the second, which came back to bite them. They had too many men, which led to Dawson Mercer making a great individual effort to feed Timo Meier for a power-play goal. A few minutes later, the Rangers had too many men again, and Luke Hughes assisted brother Jack for his second goal of the contest.
Hughes your daddy?#NJDevils | @Mikes_Amazing pic.twitter.com/eG3BoQ4KzU
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) December 23, 2024
The third period was more domination from the Devils, as they made it 4-0 as Nico Hischier fed Stefan Noesen for a tap-in. Then, they scored again: Mercer on the power play; J. Hughes got the assist for his third point of the game. They shut it down the rest of the way.
J. Hughes told The Hockey Writers, “I think we really believe in our group, and it allows us to come to the rink and enjoy it.”
The Devils allowed just 12 shots, continuing their level of historical defensive dominance. It’s the sixth straight game in which they’ve allowed less than 20 shots.
The Devils will remain home to take on the Carolina Hurricanes at 7:00 PM on Friday; the Rangers will head to Amalie Arena to face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday (7:00 PM).
