Devils picking up steam ahead of clash vs. Hurricanes
The New Jersey Devils hope to start the second half of the season the way they began the first when they host the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday night in Newark, N.J.
The Devils opened the season by winning eight of nine games but are just 14-16-2 since then. They capped the first half with a 4-1 win against the visiting Utah Mammoth on Saturday afternoon, giving them two victories in a row.
"It's a big win for us," said New Jersey goaltender Jacob Markstrom, who made 30 saves. "We've got 41 more, and this is how most of them got to look like."
The Devils scored two goals or less in each of Markstrom's previous four starts, and he lost three of them. They scored two goals in the first period on Saturday and added two in the second to give him a 4-0 lead entering the third.
"Obviously, we get four on the board here and thinking we're controlling the game from puck drop to the end," Markstrom said. "So it's a big team win and something that we need to build on, and this is the way we've got to play to be successful."
Jake Allen and Markstrom have rotated the past 10 starts, so Allen likely will start against Carolina in the second game of a back-to-back set.
New Jersey is 3-1-1 in Allen's last five starts. Allen, however, is 3-5-1 in nine career starts against the Hurricanes, with a 2.82 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage.
New Jersey defenseman Dougie Hamilton scored a goal on Saturday for the first time since Oct. 28. Now the Devils would like to see Dawson Mercer end his scoring drought, as he is goal-less since Nov. 29.
The Hurricanes also will play the second game of a back-to-back set after falling 5-3 to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday. Carolina led 3-1 entering the third period before surrendering four unanswered goals.
"We've done it four times in the last six games, or something like that," Hurricanes forward Nikolaj Ehlers said of squandering a multi-goal lead. "And it's games where we've actually played really well, up until the last period.
"Last game, it was me throwing the puck right to a guy in the slot. Today, it was maybe a few mistakes and it was in the back of our net. So we've got stuff we need to clean up. Luckily, we've got 41 games to do that."
The loss was the third in a row and sixth in eight games for Carolina.
"Those are the teams you want to play up against," Ehlers said of the Avalanche, who improved to 31-2-7. "So we can take some stuff, but we've got some stuff we've got to bring with us as well that we need to clean up."
Brandon Bussi is expected to start in goal for the Hurricanes after Frederik Andersen made 30 saves against Colorado.
Bussi has made 16 NHL starts, none against the Devils. He surrendered a season-high six goals in his last outing, a 7-5 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.