Dillon Sets Tone; Devils Power Play Erupts; Allen Stellar in Shutout Over Flyers

NEWARK—Brenden Dillon didn’t forget what the Philadelphia Flyers did to the New Jersey Devils earlier this week. He eventually set the tone physically the Devils needed to propel them in the second period, and eventually, the game.

After the Devils had a poor start against the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday, head coach Sheldon Keefe certainly expected more in the rematch on Wednesday.

READ MORE: Devils Reveal Nico Hischier Injury Timeline; Jack Hughes Improving

However, Keefe’s Devils were a step slower than the Flyers after puck drop, and if it weren’t for Jake Allen, New Jersey would have trailed early.

Within the first two minutes of the game, the Flyers already forced Allen to make three saves and by the halfway mark of the period, he made four high-danger stops.

The Devils’ defense wasn’t up to par in the opening 20 minutes, allowing far too many rush chances, and struggled to clear pucks from their own end.

Fortunately, Allen was quite strong in the opening frame and stopped 1.46 goals above expected, turning aside all 10 shots he faced, four of which were high-danger.

The Devils ended the first period with 10 hits, whereas the Flyers had three.

New Jersey started the second period on the power play as a result of a hooking call on Morgan Frost at the end of the opening frame.

Ondrej Palat opened the scoring, a power play goal at the 54-second mark of the first period, to give New Jersey a 1-0 lead.

Moments later, Owen Tippett was skating through the neutral zone looking for the puck and took a big, open-ice hit by Devils defenseman Brenden Dillon. Following the hit, Tippett skated right off the ice and down the Flyers’ tunnel. He did not return for the remainder of the game.

Brenden Dillon caught Owen Tippett with a hit and Torts is FIRED UP pic.twitter.com/i6VbMgR49d

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) January 30, 2025

Dillon’s hit was the momentum changer the Devils needed to take over.

Luke Hughes picked up a loose puck in the Devils’ end of the ice and started an odd-man rush with brother, Jack Hughes, going the other way. Luke took the puck all the way, however, and scored on the rush, beating Sam Ersson blocker side.

Hughes’ goal was quickly overshadowed by a plethora of physicality that continued to pump more juice into the rivalry tilt. Garnet Hathaway and Johnathan Kovacevic were the centers of a post-whistle scrum. Each received four-minute double minors for roughing. Kurtis MacDermid quickly rushed to the defense of Kovacevic in the scrum, however, Nick Seeler interfered, and the two skaters received minor penalties for roughing.

Once the multiple penalties were settled, the Devils ran away with their lead. Back on the power play, Nathan Bastian pushed a loose puck over the goal line to triple New Jersey’s lead. Then, Timo Meier found Dawson Mercer back door to give New Jersey a 4-0 lead.

Ersson was pulled by the Flyers after 33:26, and Ivan Fedotov stepped in for relief.

Between the multiple scrums that ensued, the Devils and Flyers combined for 26 penalty minutes on 13 minors in just the middle frame.

The Devils picked up in the third where they left off in the second. Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt led an odd-man rush toward the Flyers end of the ice. A give and go sequence resulted in Hughes burying the Devils’ fifth goal of the night just 1:58 into the final frame.

The Devils locked it down for the remainder of the third period, going on to shutout the Flyers.

Allen registered his third shutout of the season, stopping all 24 pucks he faced. He registered 3.62 saves above expected.

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