Last night the New Jersey Devils won their second-straight game at Madison Square Garden. The win evened their first round series against their bitter rival New York Rangers.
Many had the Devils dead to rights after two embarrassing losses in Game 1 and 2. The team fought through the adversity however, and earned a chance to gain the series lead at home this Thursday.
Recap
Period One
The Devils came out flying in Game 4 and it resulted in an early goal. After a nice save by Akira Schmid, Jonas Siegenthaler flipped the puck out of the zone and right onto the stick of Jack Hughes. Hughes broke in all alone on Igor Shesterkin and buried his third goal in four games to put New Jersey up early.
The Rangers would get some decent chances, but all of them were snuffed out by the ever calm Akira Schmid. The Devils would remain up 1-0 after the first period.
Period Two
The second period was controlled by the Devils at five-on-five, but Igor Shesterkin stopped everything. He made a few nice saves on Erik Haula, Jack Hughes, and Nico Hischier to keep the game within a goal. Despite a strong push, the game would remain 1-0 Devils after two.
Period Three
With the Rangers down one heading into the third period, they pressed early on and scored. A puck landed right on the stick of Vincent Trochek who potted his first point of the series to even the game at one. The Devils didn’t fall back following this however, they pressed.
Just about half way through, Nico Hischier sliced through the Rangers’ defense and laid a perfect pass on the stick of Jonas Siegenthaler. The stay-at-home defenseman ripped a shot far side to put New Jersey up by one. The Rangers attempted to press but to no avail.
Eventually, Ondrej Palat blasted the puck into the empty net to put the Devils up by two and seal the game. New Jersey came into the Garden twice and won each time. The 3-1 win tied the series heading back to a game five in Jersey.
Game Notes
Lead By Example
While Nico Hischier may not have the goals to show for it, he’s been quite possibly the Devils most impactful player these playoffs. The captain holds a 66.07 corsi-for percentage (CF%) and 74.59 expected goals percentage (xG%).
When he has been on the ice at even strength the Devils have 42 scoring chances to the Rangers’ 17 and 20 high-danger scoring chances to the Rangers’ four. That’s leading by example from the captain.
New Series
With things tied up at two, the Devils are essentially playing in a fresh, best-of-three series. Game 5 for the chance at the lead is Thursday night in Newark. Game 6 will be played at Madison Square Garden this Saturday, and a potential Game 7 would be played at the Prudential Center next Monday.
The past few days have been exciting for Devils’ fans, but the team still needs to win two of their next three against a good Rangers team. This is crunch time for New Jersey, let’s see what they’ve got.
What’s Next
As mentioned, Game 5 is scheduled for a 7:30 pm ET puck drop at the Prudential Center. It can be seen nationally on ESPN 2.