Scores from Jack Hughes, Jesper Bochvist and Thomas Tatar extended the New Jersey Devils’ ninth straight victory to a 3-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabers on Friday night.
The Metropolitan Division leader, New Jersey, bounced back from his 2-1 home loss to Toronto on Wednesday night, ending his 13-game winning streak, a franchise record.
“We talked about not losing two games in a row,” Devils manager Lindy Ruff said. “And overall, I thought we put in a really good team effort.”
The Devils’ road win streak is the second longest in team history, and his 11-1 record in November is the most wins in a month.
New Jersey’s backup goaltender, Akira Schmidt, has made 31 saves this season, improving to 4-0-0. The 22-year-old Swiss lost all four starts last season as a rookie.
“I had a great jump,” said Eric Howra, who assisted the Devils’ first goal after creating a scoring chance with his check on his defending poke in his zone. “Great ozone pressure. We were able to win the pack and manage turnovers. We missed a few chances, but I thought we had great energy.”
Buffalo’s Victor Olofsson scored and Craig his Anderson scored his 41st stoppage. The Devils’ defense slowed the Sabers’ offense, and after an eight-game slip, they scored 13 goals in a winning streak.
“They have a lot of bragging rights at the moment,” said Sabers coach Don Granato. “I think their defense was pretty dominant pretty early on.”
New Jersey scored his three goals in Game 2 and he beat his opponents 30–20 in 21 games during that period. Dawson Mercer’s backhand his pass set the fuse for his one-timer slide in the second minute.
About four minutes later, Yegor Sharangovich extended the points streak to five his game when he took Mattias Samuelsson’s puck of Buffalo along his board and slotted Boqvist into the end. After Olofsson scored on a rush to make it 2-1, the Tatars answered the Devil with a left circle shot that slipped through Anderson’s pads with 2:05 left. training room
Captain Kyle Okposo returned to the Sabers lineup after missing six games with a lower body injury.