Devils Blank ‘Canes to Gain Share of First Place in Metropolitan

Maybe it’s time to stop thinking that sooner or later the New Jersey Devils are going to play like the Devils of old.

The Devils parlayed two goals by Jesper Bratt and three points by Jack Hughes, plus strong goaltending by Vitek Vancek, into a 3-0 win against the Carolina Hurricanes.

The win moved the Devils into a tie with the Hurricanes for first place in the Metropolitan Division. Each team has 94 points, with the Hurricanes owning a game in hand.

Perhaps more importantly, the game provides more evidence that the Devils are a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. With roughly a month to go in the regular-season, the Devils boast the NHL’s third-best record and rank second overall with a +58 goal-differential.

The Devils also rank fourth with a 2.64 team goals-against average. Don’t all of these notations add up to Stanley Cup contention?

New Jersey is 7-2-1 in its last 10 games. No team has been more proficient on the road than the Devils who have lost four times in regulation in 33 away games. The Devils are 25-4-4 on the road.

Jack Hughes leads the Devils with 37 goals and 79 points in 62 games, but New Jersey has four scorers with 20 or more goals and eight with 10 or more.

Underlying stats also support the idea that the Devils have a shot to win it all. According to NaturalStatTrick.com, the Devils lead the league in scoring chances for and are second for the least number of scoring chances against. The Devils also have the NHL’s fourth-best Corsi percentage (53.91).

🐺 Coyotes' Clayton Keller has 3 points including OT winner to beat Wild 5-4. The 24-year-old forward scored his first of two goals midway through the third period before scoring with less than a minute left in overtime to secure the come-from-behind win for the Coyotes. Keller registered his 200th career assist and 40th of the season on Brett Ritchie's goal late in the second period. The Missouri native has collected 10 points (4G, 6A) in his last 5 games. The Coyotes have won 8 of their past 12 home games and hold a 17-11-3 record at Mullett Arena this season — they won 11 home games total last season at Gila River Arena.

🐧 Kris Letang's OT blast defeats the Rangers to secure back-to-back wins for Pens. The Pens defeated their interstate rivals, the Flyers 5-1 on Saturday before hosting the New York Rangers Sunday afternoon. The Pens jumped out to an early lead thanks to Rickard Rakell's 23rd goal of the season & Jason Zucker extended his goal streak to four games with his 24th of the year to start the 2nd period. The Pens found themselves on the power play early in OT thanks to Artemi Panarin's tripping penalty on Malkin. Twenty-six seconds later Malkin put a pass in Letang's wheelhouse who proceeded to blow it past Jaroslav Halak's glove to win the game 3-2 over the Rangers. The OT goal was Kris Letang's 11th of his career, good for 3rd all-time for a defenseman in NHL history.

What two NHL defenseman have scored more overtime goals than Kris Letang?

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Brent Burns (16) and Scott Niedermayer (13) sit one and two all-time for overtime goals by an NHL defenseman.