NJ Devils vs Toronto Maple Leafs

NEWARK, NJ 3/7/23- For the past five games, the Devils were 4-1 and coming off an OT 5-4-win vs the Arizona Coyotes after a beautiful game-winning goal by the captain Nico Hischier. It was a dominant offensive night for New Jersey. The new edition to the team, Timo Meier - who was acquired in a trade last week from San Jose - has already shown his scoring ability. Timo scored the opening goal for the Devils, which was his first goal in his Devils debut.  Severson had one goal, followed by a two-goal night by Jesper Boqvist.

New Jersey headed back to downtown Newark to host the powerhouse Toronto Maple Leafs from the Atlantic division. The Leafs, who were 38-17-8 this season with 84 points sit second in the Atlantic behind a historical regular season Boston Bruins team. Maple Leafs made some moves on the deadline themselves adding more center depth by acquiring Ryan O’Reilly from the St. Louis Blues. The Maple Leafs, however, will not have John Tavares who is recovering from an injury nor O’Reilly who just received surgery on his finger on the ice tonight. 

JUST THE FACTS

·      Entering Tuesday nigh, Lindy Ruff marks his 200-career game as a head coach.

·      Timo Meier was set to make his home debut as a Devil.

·      Dougie Hamilton’s 18 multi-point games set a franchise record for D-man

·      Red-hot Dawson Mercer aimed for a 10-game point streak,

·      NJ was 10 wins shy of tying the single-season franchise record.

·      The Devils had an 11-2 record against teams from Canada this year.

CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR

The Timo Meier chants started early at the Rock, and fans were making it clear how much they love him on the team. Despite the period being tied at zero after 20 minutes, the Devils outshot the Leafs on net 15-4.

New Jersey looked like a different team to start off the first; their fast-paced brand of hockey served them up plenty of opportunities but was stopped by IIya Samsonov. Hischier, Hamilton, Severson, and Woods all had chances but were denied by Samsonov and had a highlight of beautiful saves to keep this game tied for the Maple Leafs. Vita also had his fair share as well. The Devils played aggressive this period crashing along the boards and winning loose puck battles. New Jersey had a complete first person, and both teams had power play takes but both failed to convert on any.

HAULALEJUH ERIK!

  The beginning of the second period had a different shift of momentum for both teams. Maple Leafs seemed to have woken up and found the brand of hockey they wanted to play out the gate. They were attacking the offensive zone more and putting more shots on goal. Leafs were controlling the second period even with the game tied at zero.

Things changed for the Maple Leafs, Nylander flew down the left side of the ice and backhanded a beautiful cross pass to Calle Jarnkrok in front of the net for an easy tapper. That was Calle’s 13th goal of the season and Nylander 42nd assists of the season adding him another point all together. 

  With Toronto in complete control for most of the period and outshooting New Jersey 14-9, the Devils answered back with their own goal. Erik Haula put one behind IIya off a rebound. It was Haula’s 6th goal of the season, and it came up in a huge spot reviving the crowd. With the game tied one with 28 seconds left in the second period, a power play opportunity came for New Jersey but with a price paid.

  Holmberg received a four-minute-high sticking call from officials after he hit Palat in the face who headed straight towards the locker room with a lot of blood rushing out. At the end of 40 minutes, New Jersey was able to spark some life back in themselves.

 3rd Period

     In the beginning, the third period started with the devils on the power play for almost 3 minutes, but they could not score. Shortly after, the Maple Leafs found themselves on the powerplay.

Mitch Marner stole the puck from Timo Meier. Marner found himself on a breakaway beating Vanecek to the right and scoring a shorthanded goal early in the 3rd.

Shortly after Ondrej Palat scored off a beautiful pass from Dawson Mercer, the game was tied at two. It was a power-play goal for the devils and the first powerplay goal of the game.

The devils continued with their momentum again controlling the puck in the Toronto zone for a long time. Then, Ondrej Palat took a shot from the far wall deflected into a small opening by Erik Haula, his second goal of the day, putting the devils up by 1.

A few minutes later the Maple Leafs tied the game with a goal by Michael Bunting. Then shortly after, Timo Meier would be called for a high stick. The maple leafs went on to score on the powerplay with a goal by Austin Matthews with two and a half minutes left in the game.

The devils failed to equalize the game going on to lose by a score of 4-3. The Devils' next game is Thursday, March 9th, against the capitals.

Also Written By: Andrew Gavin