The New Jersey Devils (31-28-4) defeated the St. Louis Blues (32-28-3) 4-1 on Thursday night. The win snapped a three-game losing streak for New Jersey, who played without leading goal scorer Tyler Toffoli. The pending unrestricted free agent was held out of the lineup as a precaution ahead of Friday’s trade deadline. With the win, the Devils sit six points out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 19 games to play.
Game Summary
First Period
The Devils started on the front foot, getting the bulk of the early chances. Jordan Binnington was forced into a pair of saves to deny Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes on high-danger looks in the opening minutes.
Despite not capitalizing on the early chances, New Jersey had an early power play after Nick Leddy was called for tripping. However, the Devils could not register a shot on net.
The Devils had another man advantage with seven minutes to go in the period after Jack Hughes was slashed on a breakaway. This time, New Jersey took advantage.
Jack Hughes skated a lap around the offensive zone before cutting inside and finding Hischier. His shot was blocked and deflected to Timo Meier who buried a backhander to open the scoring. It was 1-0 Devils with 6:30 to play in the first after Meier extended his goal streak to four straight games.
Meier doubled his total less than three minutes later, blasting a one-timer home off a great slap pass from Ondrej Palat, making it 2-0 Devils with four minutes to go.
St. Louis had a chance to respond with a power play of their own with three minutes left in the frame, but Nico Daws made a pair of saves to keep the Blues scoreless.
After one, shots were 16-5 New Jersey. The Devils posted a 78.13 Corsi-for percentage (CF%) and an 87.44 expected goals-for percentage (xGF%) at five-on-five.
Second Period
After the Devils dominated the first, the Blues took early control of the second. John Marino was called for hooking, fiving St. Louis another power play just a minute in.
The Blues threatened again, but Nico Daws was equal to them. He made several big glove saves on the kill, including denying a Pavel Buchnevich one-timer from the slot as New Jersey killed off the penalty.
However, St. Louis continued to surge forward after the empty man advantage, and clawed a goal back midway through the period. Scott Perunovich fired a point shot off the post and Brandon Saad buried the rebound. Saad’s 18th of the year cut the Devils’ lead to 2-1.
The Devils responded well after the goal, though, and eventually restored their two goal lead. Once again, Ondrej Palat picked out Timo Meier, this time in the high slot, and Meier rifled one blocker side, beating Binnington for the third time. It was 3-1 New Jersey with three minutes left in the second.
The goal marked Meier’s fifth career hat trick, and first a Devil.
After two, it was 3-1 Devils while shots in the middle frame were 11-10 in favor of the Blues. New Jersey registered a 48.48 CF% and a 46.17 xGF% at five-on-five in the period.
Third Period
The Blues had an early power play after Kurtis MacDermid slashed a St. Louis defenseman in the offensive zone. However, the Devils killed it off relatively easily, not allowing anything too threatening on net.
From there, New Jersey did an excellent job clogging up the ice and keeping St. Louis out of the dangerous areas of the ice. In fact, before Jordan Binnington was pulled with three minutes to go, the Devils had held the Blues to just five shots on goal in the frame. The best chance actually came when a puck hopped over the stick of Erik Haula at the doorstep, preventing an easy tap-in.
However, the Blues did pull Binnington with three minutes left, and eventually got set up for some extended zone time. Still though, the Devils kept them to the outside. Ultimately, Erik Haula sealed it with an empty net goal with 59 seconds to go.
The Devils held on for a dominant 4-1 win. In the final period, the shots were 8-7 St. Louis. However, the Devils posted a 59.09 CF% and a 73.33 xGF% at five-on-five.
Wrap-Up
For the game, shots were 33-24 New Jersey while the Devils put up a 62.07 CF% and a 66.44 xGF% at five-on-five.
Nico Daws picked up his ninth win of the season for the Devils, stopping 23 of 24 shots faced. It was a strong bounceback effort from Daws after being pulled in back-to-back starts, as he turned aside 2.37 goals above expected in the win.
For St. Louis, Jordan Binnington stopped 29 of 32 shots faced in the loss. He allowed 0.55 goals above expected.
Game Notes
Terrific Top Line
Of course, Timo Meier’s hat trick will steal the headlines, but the entire top line of Meier, Nico Hischier, and Ondrej Palat was dominant in the win. At five-on-five, the trio totally controlled play, posting a 73.53 CF% and an outstanding 92.17 xGF% together in over 12 minutes of action.
Scoring chances were also incredibly lopsided with the top line on the ice. The Devils out-chanced the Blues 10-1 with that line on the ice and held a 6-1 edge in high-danger chances.
On top of the tremendous night analytically, the three also combined for eight points in the win.
Solid Night From Third Line
The third line of Curtis Lazar, Dawson Mercer, and Chris Tierney were also very solid in nine five-on-five minutes together. The trio combined for an 81.82 CF% and a 95.74 xGF% at five-on-five. Scoring chances were 4-1 Devils with this line on the ice, and high-danger chances were 1-0 in favor of New Jersey.
This unit did not grab the same level of attention as the top line by not creating as much offensively, but they did a great job suppressing chances at the other end. The Lazar-Mercer-Tierney trio held St. Louis to just 0.01 expected goals in their nine minutes together.
Nemec-Hughes Pairing Struggles
In a great night top-to-bottom for New Jersey, one slight negative was the play of Simon Nemec and Luke Hughes pairing. The two young defensemen had played just over 81 minutes together all season, and played quite well, registering a 64.76 CF% and a 71.88 xGF% in that time while the Devils racked up over 70% of the regular and high-danger scoring chances with that duo on the ice.
Travis Green reunited the pair on Thursday after Nemec was a healthy scratch on Tuesday against Florida. Against St. Louis, Nemec posted a 46.78 xGF% at five-on-five while Hughes posted a 48.29 xGF%. These were the lowest marks among New Jersey defensemen in the win.
However, it wasn’t a night without positives for the duo. Both finished north of 60% in terms of scoring chance and high-danger chance shares and both had Corsi-for percentages above 50%.
What’s Next
The Devils host the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday. Puck drop is set for 12:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
Note: All statistics via Natural Stat Trick.