Six in a row it is!

On Wednesday night at Prudential Center, the New Jersey Devils hosted the Minnesota Wild in their pursuit of a sixth consecutive victory. The result, a 4-1 victory, extended New Jersey’s win streak to a length they hadn’t achieved since their famous 13-game streak in the fall of 2022.

Making his first start of the season, Nico Daws manned the Devils’ net and made 29 saves on 30 shots. Opposing him, in Minnesota’s net, was Filip Gustavsson, who surrendered three goals on 35 shots (the fourth goal was an empty-netter). The Devils got contributions up and down the lineup, including Arseny Gritsyuk’s first career goal, on a power-play, that made it 3-0 early in the third period. 

One of the stories going into the game was the recent heater authored by Jack Hughes, who netted his third career hat-trick Tuesday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Hughes came into the game against Minnesota with six goals, three assists and nine points in six games this season. But more importantly, he has been healthy and looks to be back to his game-breaking form that has him routinely mentioned as one of the most dynamic players in The League. 

Also enjoying a hot start to this season are Jesper Bratt (11 points – four goals, seven assists – in seven games), Nico Hischier (six points – two goals, four assists – in seven games), Timo Meier (seven points – three goals, four assists – in seven games) and Dawson Mercer (seven points – three goals, four assists – in seven games). And let’s not forget about Luke Hughes, who has shown no signs of rust after missing a vast majority of Training Camp due to prolonged contract negotiations. In seven games, the youngest Hughes brother has five points (all assists) and has been quite important to New Jersey’s early success. 

On Wednesday night, a key contributor from last season, Stefan Noesen, returned from off-season groin surgery to make his season debut. Noesen saw 8:14 of ice time (including 54 seconds of power-play time) and described his first game of the season as “my first game since May…It’s just one of those things that might take me a game or two to really get into it, get my touches. Felt okay getting up and down the ice, which is a big thing. The puck touches will come. Was pretty nice getting out there.” His return coincided with Cody Glass exiting the lineup after initially getting hurt Tuesday night in Toronto. 

Head Coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game, “He got injured partway through the game last night and he missed some time and then he was pretty limited the rest of the game. But he played through it and was gonna be questionable for today, but ultimately just wasn’t able to go as he woke up not feeling any better today. I think he had some imaging today, which I haven’t gotten the results on to know exactly what’s happening there. We don’t expect it to be anything too long-term, but we’ll just have to see how it settles in the next few days.” 

Noesen started the game on the fourth line as the left wing alongside Lucas Glendening and Brian Halonen. With Glass out, Dawson Mercer shifted from second line right wing to third line center, playing between Paul Cotter and Connor Brown. This meant that Arseny Gritsyuk moved up to the second line right wing spot, alongside Meier and Hischier. Ondrej Palat, Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt remained the team’s top line at the start of the game. 

With the Devils pushing the pace throughout the first period, controlling play to the tune of an all-situations CF% of 72.22% in the first 16 minutes, Paul Cotter got New Jersey on the board at the 16:21 mark. (That CF% includes their one failed power-play opportunity early in the opening period). Cotter sent a wrister from the slot past Gustavsson to give the Devils a 1-0 lead, paying off almost an entire period of effort by the Garden Staters. 

“I think we were just a little bit more prepared than they thought,” said Cotter after the game. “When we stick to our game like that, it’s hard to beat us.”

New Jersey wasn’t quite as dominant to start the second period, only registering a CF% of 57.14% in the first 6:08 of the middle period, but that didn’t stop Brenden Dillon from scoring his second goal in as many nights. Dawson Mercer passed the puck out to Dillon, who was just inside the blue line and the veteran defenseman sent a shot towards the net that had eyes, passing Gustavsson on the way by, to give the Devils a 2-0 lead. 

“He’s hot,” exclaimed Keefe after the game.

With 8:39 left in the second period, Dillon was called for interference against Vinnie Hinostroza, sending the Devils to their first penalty-kill of the game. Beyond the obvious threat of a goal, the Devils’ streak of 18 consecutive successful penalties was on the line. They need not worry, though, as New Jersey’s penalty killers held Minnesota’s power-play without a shot on goal, stretching their streak of successful kills to 19 in a row. 

Then, with 3:46 left in the second period, Luke Hughes was sent to the box for interference against Jake Middleton, again putting New Jersey’s penalty-kill streak on the line. While Minnesota had a couple of quality chances towards the end of their power-play, New Jersey again successfully killed off the penalty, running their successful streak to 20 in a row. 

The second period skewed a little more, overall, in the Wild’s favor as New Jersey only had a CF% of 45.83%, but through the first 40 minutes, the Devils still had a strong all-situations CF% above 50%, meaning they were in control of the puck more than half the time. 

David Jiricek went to the box for slashing Ondrej Palat 4:49 into the third period and promptly paid for it. Four seconds into New Jersey’s second power-play of the game, Arseny Gritsyuk wired a shot from the high slot for his first career NHL goal to increase the Devils’ lead to 3-0. 

“He’s very excited that it finally happened,” said translator Sergei Brylin. “Obviously waited longer than he thought, but it finally happened.”

Minnesota’s Matt Boldy then got the Wild on the board with a goal 10:37 into the third period. 

Luke Hughes was called for his second interference penalty of the game with 4:08 left in the third period, this one against Danila Yurov, so the Devils’ penalty-kill streak was put on the line one more time. And once more, New Jersey was up to the task, running their penalty-kill streak to 21 in a row. 

“We’re all on the same page,” Mercer explained after the game. “We’ve been doing a real good job of that all year. We take a lot of pride in it and it’s something that gives us a lot of momentum. Obviously, every inch of the game that we can take and put us at a better advantage, we’re gonna take that. And I think, overall, we’re just really taking a lot of pride in that.”

Jesper Bratt salted the game away with an empty net goal shortly after the penalty-kill expired to give New Jersey a 4-1 lead. Nico Daws and New Jersey’s skaters held the fort the rest of the way. Overall, the third period was a solid, but unspectacular one for the Devils as they had an all-situations CF% of 50%. 

“There were a lot of block shots tonight,” said Daws. “Some of them, I didn’t see it all, so yeah, we did a great job with that.”

Next up for the Devils is a Friday night tilt at Prudential Center against the San Jose Sharks. So the opportunities will be there for the Garden Staters to extend their streak to seven straight.