Devils Find Scoring Touch; Daws Records Shutout in Win vs. Nashville

Coming off the 4 Nations Face-Off break and a decent performance against the Dallas Stars, which yielded no points, the New Jersey Devils were right back in action on the road against the Nashville Predators.

Losers of four out of their last five in Nashville, the desperate Devils were in need of two points.

The Devils found themselves shorthanded early in the contest, but it was Jack Hughes who set up Dougie Hamilton for the best chance, but was sent just wide of Predators backup goalie Justus Annunen’s net.

There was a noticeable advantage for the Devils in the pace of play. They quickly got the puck up the ice, including a Hughes breakaway, a Jesper Bratt shimmy-shake to get behind the defense, and a Dawson Mercer to Timo Meier two-on-one. However, their inability to finish continued to haunt them early.

Their shooting luckily finally started to turn at the 13:45 mark of the first period, when Luke Hughes picked up a rebound from a Hamilton shot, took the puck wide, then found Ondrej Palat through a maze of bodies who put in the back of the net for his 500th career point and the first goal of the game.

A front-footed first period put the Devils ahead on the scoreboard and the shot counter, leading 12-7.

Nashville came out firing on all cylinders early to start the second period, but Nico Daws stood tall, stopping multiple Grade-A chances.

However, Hamilton had enough of the one-way traffic and sniped one past Annunen from a ridiculous angle off of a Nico Hischier pass. After leading the Devils with eight shots on goal against Dallas, he was able to most the most difficult of chances in the back of the net. Bratt registered a secondary assist, bringing his point streak to 10 games. The goal at the 9:14 mark was his ninth of the season and the 501st point of his career.

A little over five minutes later, Seamus Casey pinged one off the post and in from the point to give the Devils a 3-0 lead. Casey, who was replacing Simon Nemec in the lineup, hadn’t appeared in an NHL game since October 19, yet is already up to four goals on the season.

Over the course of the second period, the Devils turned the tide in their favor, yet again leading on the scoreboard 3-0 and the shot counter 26-16. 

The Devils weren’t done scoring. After Predators forward Michael McCarron went to the penalty box for cross-checking, Stefan Noesen put one home from the slot after some good puck movement for his 19th goal of the season. The goal was assisted by Hischier and Bratt, both who recorded their second assists of the night.

The goals continued to pour in. Hischier made a great play to keep the puck in before finding Tatar whose shot ricocheted off a Predator defenseman’s skate and in the back of the net to make it a commanding 5-0 Devils. After scoring a hat trick of goals in the first meeting of the season, Hischier recorded a hat trick of assists after setting up Tatar.

Nashville got a late power play after Brett Pesce was sent off for hooking, but came up with another big kill. In addition to all the goals and saves, the Devils penalty kill going a perfect 4/4 went a big way towards the win.

The Nashville Predators and Fedor Svechkov thought they had finally broken through and beaten Daws, but a Sheldon Keefe challenge for offsides proved to be successful and restored Daws’s shutout.

Daws stopped 29/29 for his first career shutout and helped the Devils get their first two points coming out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break.

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