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Game Summary

No less than 24 hours after a 3-2 win Friday night against the Vancouver Canucks, the New Jersey Devils came away with a thrilling 4-3 overtime victory against the Detroit Red Wings last night, thanks to Brian Gibbons’ team-leading eleventh goal of the season.

The Devils got off to a rocky start as David Booth put the Red Wings up 1-0 just 34 seconds into the game on a redirection that found it’s way past Keith Kinkaid. It wouldn’t take long for the Devils to respond, however. Brian Boyle managed to knot things up midway through the first period after a beautiful redirect off a Steven Santini point shot- his second goal in as many games. The Devils would add to their lead in short order, as Taylor Hall rifled a shot pass Petr Mrazek on the power play for a 2-1 Devils lead heading into the first intermission.

The score remained the same through the second period and into the start of the third period. The Devils killed off two penalties to open things up in the final frame and would use that momentum to their advantage. Nico Hischier helped the Devils add to their lead after Taylor Hall made a beautiful saucer pass from along the boards to an open Hischier in front of the net to go up 3-1.

The Devils looked to be in good shape, but the Red Wings fought back and in quick fashion. Just seconds after Hischier’s goal, Anthony Mantha cut the Devils lead to one, beating Kinkaid glove side high on a shot he had no chance of saving. Although still up one, the Devils weren’t out of the woods just yet. The Red Wings would score less than two minutes later to tie things to quickly overcome a two-goal third period deficit that would eventually be good enough to get the game to overtime.

After faltering in an eleven-round shootout Wednesday night, the Devils certainly wanted no part in that again and Brian Gibbons made sure it wouldn’t be the case. After losing an edge, Gibbons regained his balance and intercepted a pass from an unsuspecting Nick Jensen. Once the puck was on his stick, he skated alone into the slot and fired a shot through Howard’s five hole for the game-winning goal to move the Devils to 14-5-4 on the year.

Takeaways

• It goes without saying much, but Taylor Hall was once again really good for the Devils. He had a goal (his second in as many games) and a beautiful assist to Nico Hischier on the Devils’ third goal of the game. Hall has been racking up the shots and scoring chances as of late and it’s really starting to show up on the scoresheet.

• He may’ve not gotten on the scoresheet, but Damon Severson was fantastic once again last night. The Devils out-attempted the Wings 22-11 and out-chanced them 8-6 when he was on the ice at five-on-five. He also logged 21:13 of total ice time, which was second on the team behind John Moore’s 22:23. Severson certainly earned his ice time as he made a couple of crucial defensive plays that easily could’ve saved a goal or two. He’s responded really well to being a healthy scratch and continues to show that he belongs in the lineup night in and night out.

• While Severson continues to play at a high-level, the same can’t be said of the Greene/Santini pairing. Greene was +9/-21 in five-on-five shot attempts while Santini was +8/-24. The Devils were also out-chanced 8-4 with them on the ice. The duo has been caved in at five-on-five on most nights, granted they’re easily getting the toughest minutes of the Devils defense pairs. That being said, they’re going to need to be better than they’ve been, or eventually their opponents will make them pay if they’re continuously out-chanced and out-shot on a consistent basis.