Summary

The Devils improved to 5-4-1 as they reached the ten-game mark of their early season. New Jersey defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 at the Wells Fargo Center tonight, giving them their fifth win in six games. Their win tonight puts the Devils at 4-1-0 on the road, which is currently the second-best away record in the Eastern Conference. After an uneventful first period, the Flyers eventually opened the scoring at 15:04 of the second period. Luke Schenn scored his first of the season off a nifty point shot that got past Schneider. The Devils power play came alive a few minutes later when Travis Zajac buried a feed in front of the net from Kyle Palmieri to tie the game.

Palmieri scored 1:28 into the third period after capitalizing on a breakaway opportunity that started from his own shot block. The Devils went on the power play shortly after and Travis Zajac scored his second power play goal of the night a little over a minute after Palmieri’s go-ahead goal. Andy Greene sealed the deal for the Devils after preventing the Flyers from scoring with an extra man on. He shot the puck from the Devils goal line and scored on the Flyers empty net. Cory Schneider stopped 27 of 28 shots and improved to 5-2-1 this year. It was only the Devils’ second regulation win in this young season.

 

Pregame Follow-ups

Who to watch

Vincent Lecavlier…He made his season debut tonight and registered his first point of the season when he assisted on Schenn’s second period goal that gave the Flyers a brief 1-0 lead. He played only 7:16 tonight, the least of any Flyers player. Outside of his lone assist, Lecavlier went plus one and had just one shot on goal.

Sergey Kalinin…After starting the game on the third line, Kalinin played a sound defensive game and continued to see his ice time increase. He played 13:04 tonight and had 56 seconds of penalty kill time out of the combined four minutes New Jersey was shorthanded tonight. Despite going minus one, the young center has one shot, hit, and two takeaways.

 

What to watch

Physicality…As promised, the Flyers brought that brand of physical play that they’re known for, into tonight’s matchup. Despite battering the Devils with 37 hits, New Jersey kept up with Philadelphia’s physical element by delivering 31 hits of their own. Adam Larsson had the second-most hits out of the players on each team (five), while Matt Read finished the game with six hits. Outside of Read’s six, the Flyers had ten different players with two or more hits tonight while the Devils had eight.

First period scoring…To be blunt, there was none. As previously mentioned, this was the seventh out of ten first periods the Devils played this season where they failed to score in the first period. They’re now 3-3-1 when they don’t score in the first period this year, while having their aforementioned 2-1-0 record when they do score at the beginning of the game.

 

Notes and Observations

Kyle Palmieri…He had a goal and three points tonight and scored in his second consecutive game. After his performance tonight, Palmieri has three goals and seven points at the ten-game mark.

Travis Zajac…His two power play goals give Zajac four in his past five games. Every one of Zajac’s goals this year were scored in special team situations (his first goal was a shorthanded one). Every one of Zajac’s four goals and seven points have been in the Devils’ last five games, over which New Jersey has gone 4-1-0.

Power play…It was another game where special teams made the difference for New Jersey. They went two-for-five on the man-advantage tonight, scoring on two of their final three power play opportunities.