After a terrible first period, the New Jersey Devils score four in the second to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks, 7-5.
- New Jersey Devils 7 (11-4-2, 24 points)
- Chicago Blackhawks 5 (8-8-2, 18 points)
- NJD Goals: Miles Wood 3 (6), Andy Greene (2), Nico Hischier (3), Taylor Hall (6), Brian Gibbons (8)
- CHI Goals: Artem Anisimov (6), Alex DeBrincat (6), Jan Rutta (3), Tanner Kero (1), Patrick Kane (6)
- NHL, Final, Boxscore
- United Center, Chicago, IL
Miles Wood led the way for New Jersey tonight as he had his first career hat trick. Wood opened the scoring for the Devils after they had fallen behind 1-0 on an Artem Anisimov goal for Chicago. After Wood tied it the Hawks would rattle off three quick goals by Debrincat, Ruuta, and Kero. Wood would add another for Jersey to cut the deficit to 4-2 after one.
The first period for the Devils was the worst one they played all season. They were very flat and couldn’t seem to get anything going. It felt like the Devils of the past few seasons, but they proved a lot of people wrong in the second.
The Devils dominated the second period behind consecutive goals from Greene, Hischier, Hall, and Gibbons. That was Nico’s third goal of his NHL career. Goalie Keith Kinkaid got all but one in the second and the one was a powerplay goal with two seconds left in the period, which made it 6-5 Devils.
In the third Wood would give the Devils an insurance goal to lead 7-5 and the Devils would not surrender again the rest of the night. Chicago pulled the goalie really early with about four minutes to go but they couldn’t get anything past Kinkaid. In fact, the Devils should have had two icings in the last four minutes that were beaten out by Jesper Bratt and Kyle Palmieri
After defeating Florida last night and Chicago tonight the Devils move to 11-4-2 through their first 16 games and currently sit alone atop the Metropolitan division. If the Devils are going to stay in this position they’re going to have to take points every night because they are playing in the best division in hockey.
They return to the ice on the road in Toronto Thursday which will for sure be another tough battle.