All they do is win, win, win!

Sunday afternoon at Prudential Center, the New Jersey Devils hosted the Colorado Avalanche while searching for their eighth consecutive victory. The result, a 4-3 overtime win, courtesy of Jack Hughes’ game-winning goal for New Jersey, tied the franchise’s fourth-longest win-streak. Throughout their history, New Jersey has had four other eight-game winning streaks (1997-98, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11). Of course, the franchise record is 13 straight wins, done twice, in 2000-01 and 2022-23. 

“They’re a great team with some great players,” Hughes said about the Avalanche. “They played yesterday, we had to jump on them a little bit, but I think that’s our next game too, right? So I’m sure they’re gonna be back at home after a road trip and be ready to roll. Tonight was a good win for us. But yeah, it’s a really good team over there.”

Against the Avalanche, the Garden Staters started Jake Allen in net. The veteran goalie entered the contest with a 4-0-0 record, 1.72 GAA and .932 SV% in five games this year. On Sunday, Allen stopped 21 of the 24 shots he faced and came up big against one of The NHL’s best offensive teams. Opposing him in net was Trent Miner. The 24-year-old was making just his second career NHL start and his fourth career NHL appearance. In one prior game this season, Miner stopped all 20 shots he faced in a relief appearance for Colorado against the Carolina Hurricanes on October 23rd. (The Avs lost that game in a shootout, with Miner being the goalie of record). On Sunday, Miner stopped 20 of the 24 shots he faced.

One of the main subplots of the game was Brett Pesce blocking a shot with roughly six minutes to go in the first period and then leaving the game and not returning. According to Devils’ Head Coach Sheldon Keefe, “He’s not great. He’s gonna be out for sure. He won’t travel with us (on the road trip).” 

“He’s such an important player for us,” Connor Brown said about Brett Pesce. “The way he plays, the poise that he plays with, just his maturity on the ice. But I thought the two young guys really stepped up huge. Luke and Nemo both played phenomenally in that third period. They took a big step forward when we needed them.”

One of the minor subplots of the game was the always fun matchup of Ross Colton facing his childhood team as the Avs’ center grew up in Robbinsville, New Jersey, as a big Devils’ fan. This isn’t new news, but it’s always fun to watch a player play against a team he used to root for. Plus, he did have an assist on Brock Nelson’s game-tying goal late in the third period. 

Both teams took a couple minutes to find their footing and traded a couple of early chances. Miner made a big stop on Paul Cotter’s quality chance off a two-on-one odd-man rush. Allen responded with an excellent glove save on Nathan MacKinnon’s shot from the left side of the net after the Avs’ superstar walked in all alone on New Jersey’s netminder. 

Then, with 9:09 gone by in the first period, Timo Meier passed the puck to Arseny Gritsyuk, who received the feed at his skates, kicked the puck to his stick and sniped it past Miner from the left face-off circle to give the Devils a 1-0 lead. 39 seconds later, Jack Hughes let loose a snapshot from the left face-off dot that whizzed past Miner to make it 2-0 New Jersey.

3:07 after Hughes’ goal, Valeri Nichushkin sniped the puck past Allen from the right face-off circle to cut New Jersey’s lead to 2-1. Nathan MacKinnon tied the game at 2-2 just over four minutes later when he cleaned up a loose puck in the crease. 

The second period initially got worse for the home team as the Avalanche dominated the Devils, hemming them in their own zone for a long stretch of time. To illustrate the trouble the Devils were in, they committed five turnovers in a span of 58 seconds. The Garden Staters didn’t even register their first shot on goal of the period until a little more than 11 minutes in. 

During that stretch, Brock Nelson was called for tripping Arseny Gritsyuk at 7:28. Timo Meier negated New Jersey’s power-play when he was penalized for high-sticking Cale Makar at 8:26. Neither team scored during their brief power-play or during the four-on-four play.

But then, with 12:51 gone by, Connor Brown was sprung for a breakaway by Simon Nemec and sniped the puck past Miner to give the Devils a 3-2 lead. It was Nemec’s second assist of the game. 

“That was a great little spring,” Brown said about Nemec finding him for the breakaway. “That one caught me by surprise. All of a sudden, I was in on a breakaway, so that was a good surprise there.”

Luke Hughes was sent to the box for interfering with Martin Necas at 13:56, but New Jersey successfully killed it off, continuing their strong season-opening penalty-killing ways. Colorado continued to dominate play after their power-play ended, but the second period ended with New Jersey in front 3-2. 

Due to Brett Pesce’s absence, New Jersey’s five remaining defensemen each saw a bump in ice time, but the largest was by Nemec, who finished the game with a TOI of 23:35 and was mostly paired with Luke Hughes after the veteran’s injury. 

In a reversal of how the second period began, the Devils outshot and outchanced the Avalanche in the first half of the third period, but they did not find the back of the net. Then, as time began to wind down, the Avs applied pressure and hit paydirt. With 6:05 left in the third period, Ross Colton found Brock Nelson alone in front of the net and the former Islander fired the puck past Allen’s glove to tie the game 3-3. Nelson’s goal further illustrated Colorado’s third-period dominance this season as his marker meant that the Avs have now outscored their opponents 13-3 in the final period of regulation this season. 

“I thought we played an excellent third period from a defensive standpoint,” explained Keefe. “We didn’t give up much. I think their goal at about the 14-minute mark is their third shot of the period. So you get 14 minutes of pretty clean hockey up to that point. We make one mistake and they score and that happens in one-goal games. But, again, we just got back to work. We had some chances late and then obviously made good in overtime.”

The score remained tied at the end of the third period, so overtime was required. It’s the first time the Devils have gone to overtime this season. It was over quickly, requiring just 1:53 before the game-winner was scored.

After Jack Hughes fired wide of the net, the puck went around the wall, where it was fished out by Nemec, who sent it back to Hughes in the slot. This time, Hughes’ aim was true and the puck found the back of the net to finish off New Jersey’s eighth consecutive victory. 

“It’s a good play to get that puck back, to recover that and get it over to me,” Hughes said of Nemec’s overtime assist. “So, obviously, good play by him on that winning goal.”

“If you see Jack open, you just want to give him the puck,” Nemec quipped. “I was just trying to do my best out there and help the team.”

Next up is another date with the Avalanche, but this one is in Colorado, on Tuesday night and it’s a chance for the Devils to extend their win streak to nine games.