Arseny Gristyuk versus Ivan Demidov. It’s the first-ever NHL Cruiserweight bout between the two highly touted and gifted rookie right wingers. At one time, they were teammates in The KHL while playing for St. Petersburg. But now, times have changed.

Thursday night at Prudential Center, the New Jersey Devils hosted the Montreal Canadiens in a matchup of the Eastern Conference’s two current division leaders. The result, a 4-3 overtime victory for the Devils, courtesy of Jesper Bratt’s game-winner, gave Gritsyuk bragging rights over his former teammate; at least until these two teams next collide on Saturday, April 4, 2026. On Thursday, Jacob Markstrom managed to pick up the win despite Jakub Dobes arguably outperforming him. New Jersey’s netminder made saves on 16 of the 19 shots he faced, while Montreal’s masked man stopped 24 of 28.

“The first one, you don’t really, I still don’t know how it went in,” said Devils’ Head Coach Sheldon Keefe. “And the second one obviously can’t go in. But yeah, I liked our game. I liked a lot about our game. It was nice to see us find a way to get it even and get it to overtime and get the point…I thought we did a good job in overtime for the most part, too. So, yeah, lots to like, we gotta keep getting better though.”

During Training Camp, Gritsyuk told NHL.com’s Mike Morreale the following about Demidov: “He’s a great player, a great skater. I think he’s got a great future in the NHL.” The compliment was a nice gesture between two friends-turned-rivals. 

In 13 games coming into Thursday night, Gritsyuk tallied six points (two goals, four assists), a minus-one rating and a shooting percentage of 6.9%, while averaging 13:38 of ice time and recording 17 total hits. Meanwhile, in Demidov’s 13 games, the 19-year-old had 12 points (four goals, eight assists), a plus-four rating and a shooting percentage of 23.5%, while averaging 14:05 of ice time and committing 15 giveaways. 

Taking a deeper dive into both players’ performances this season, Gritsyuk had an Individual Points Percentage of 75.00, five individual high-danger chances, and an individual Corsi For of 48. As for Demidov, his advanced stats showed an IPP of 63.16, six individual high-danger chances, and an individual Corsi For of 40. 

Essentially, Gritsyuk has been the better player in terms of puck possession and creating offensive chances, but Demidov has been the superior winger in terms of finishing his opportunities. However, Montreal’s rookie has benefitted from an unsustainably high shooting percentage and has been very prone to coughing up the puck.

However, once the puck dropped in Newark, the compliments went out the window. In 15:29 of ice time, Gritsyuk had two shots on goal, a plus-one rating, and an individual expected goals of 0.16. On the other side, in 10:27 of ice time, Demidov was a minus-one and had an individual expected goals of 0.08. 

As for the rest of the Devils and Canadiens skaters, Cody Glass, who returned to the lineup for New Jersey after missing the last seven games with an injury, scored 1:53 into the game, from the left circle, to give the home team a quick 1-0 lead.

However, 1:06 after Glass’ goal, Kirby Dach redirected a puck past Markstrom to knot the score 1-1. That’s two quick goals in the first 2:59 of the game.

Dach’s momentum didn’t last long as he was sent to the box 9:11 into the game for committing goaltender interference by running over Markstrom. Of course, his teammates picked him up by successfully stifling The NHL’s fourth-best power-play team. 

The rest of the first period was what we’d call “low-event hockey,” at least until there was just 3:54 left in the period. That’s when Timo Meier was sent to the box for tripping Lane Hutson, sending the Devils to their first penalty-kill of the game. Then, just 20 seconds into Montreal’s man-advantage, Demidov tripped Dawson Mercer to negate the Canadiens’ power-play and make the teams skate four-aside. (This came shortly after Mercer returned from missing a few minutes due to an on-ice mishap). 

That’s when things opened up. First, Cole Caufield broke in alone on Markstrom, who stonewalled Montreal’s high-scoring winger not once but twice. Then, Jesper Bratt had a partial break-in of his own, only to be stopped by Dobes. 

Demidov made an immediate impact moments into the middle period when he made a stick “save” on Jack Hughes’ backhander at the goal-line and then was tee’d up for a quality scoring chance at the other end, only for Markstrom to make the last-second save. 

New Jersey again breached Dobes’ defenses 8:05 into the middle period when Ondrej Palat scored his first goal of the year, from the doorstep, to give the Devils a 2-1 lead. Then, Oliver Kapanen was sent to the box 1:39 later for tripping Jack Hughes. However, New Jersey’s power-play faltered for the third time in the game, so the score remained 2-1.

Simon Nemec was called for hooking Zack Bolduc with 2:30 left in the period, but the Devils killed off the penalty to improve to two-for-two on the penalty-kill in the game. With that kill, New Jersey ended the second period with a 2-1 lead and coming into Thursday night, they were 8-0-0 when leading after two periods this season. 

Of course, the period was not a total win for the Garden Staters as Dougie Hamilton went down the tunnel approximately five minutes into the period and did not return for the rest of the game with a suspected lower-body injury. Montreal also briefly lost Demidov during the latter portion of the period. 

“Playing most of the game there with five D-men…a couple weeks ago we lost (Brett) Pesce and then guys have to step up today (when) we lose Dougie (Hamilton). And then a lot of guys have to step up again. Those guys did a great job. They’re a fast team. They check a lot. They forecheck hard. It wasn’t an easy night for our five D, but they were really sticking with it. They were a really big part of our win.”

59 seconds into the third period, Jake Evans tied the game with a shot that squeaked by Markstrom to tie the game 2-2. Noah Dobson was credited with the primary assist on Evans’ goal, giving him two helpers in the game. 

Then, at 2:33 of the third, Jayden Struble was sent to the box for hooking Stefan Noesen, sending the Devils to their fourth power-play of the game. Uncharacteristically, New Jersey was oh-for-three on the man-advantage to that point in the game. And once more, the Garden Staters did not capitalize, even though Montreal has just the 22nd best penalty-kill in The League. 

Struble returned to the box at 6:06 of the third period for high-sticking Paul Cotter. On the power-play for the fifth time in the game, the Devils once more failed to capitalize on the opportunity, showing just how discombobulated their man-advantage units get without Dougie Hamilton. 

“(We) just gotta stick with it,” Meier said about the team’s oh-for-five performance on the power-play. “I think one thing we could do better is getting more (pucks to the net). (We) might be looking for the perfect play. Sometimes you gotta get pucks there, but yeah, that’s something both groups you’re gonna work on to improve.”

Montreal then took the lead with 9:27 left in the third period after Kapanen fired a backhander past Markstrom for the 3-2 lead. It was the second goal of the period that New Jersey’s netminder would like back. 

With time winding down, it looked like the Devils would suffer a tough defeat, but with their net empty and just 1:07 left in the third period, Timo Meier scored from the side of the net to tie the game 3-3. 

Then it was time for overtime. 

Jesper Bratt ended the game 1:33 into overtime with a breakaway goal after stealing the puck from Alex Newhook at New Jersey’s blue line. New Jersey won 4-3 and continued their perfect season at home, improving to 6-0-0 at Prudential Center. 

“You’ve just always gotta be patient,” said Bratt. “You never know when the chance is coming up. Doesn’t matter as a team or as an individual, if you’ve been missing a few shots or (the) puck hasn’t really bounced your way. You just gotta be ready for the next chance. You just gotta move on and do better on the next try.”

‘This is a nice win,” said Timo Meier. “Tie it up late and then won in overtime, but I think it just showed us as a team, the fine line of being in the lead and what we can do and what gives the other team momentum and chances to score goals. So, I think that was a good example and we saw, in this game especially, what we need to do to be successful and the things we don’t have to do, that don’t allow us to be successful.”

“We want to be a team that’s hard to play against at home,” Meier continued. “So we gotta build on that. I think you always feed off the crowd, and you want to get them all and feel the energy. That definitely helps. And I said this before, we wanna be a team here, if you come into this building, you know it’s gonna be a hard night.”

Ivan Demidov photo by Sportsology