First Period
The St. Louis Blues got an early two on one in the first period, but Connor Hellebuyck came across to make a big save on Dylan Holloway on the opening shift. On the other end, a minute later, Jesper Bratt got the puck out from below the goal line to Arseny Gritsyuk in the slot, but Jordan Binnington made a big stop of his own
Three minutes and four seconds in, Evan Rodrigues drew a hooking penalty from Justin Barron to send the Devils to the power play. The same power play from the Oilers game took
the ice, with Connor Brown going to the front of the net. The first unit had some good chances, but the Blues did enough to slow them down and keep them off the board.
At five-on-five, some minutes later, the Hughes line put on a big show right after the television broadcast showed World War Two veteran Bob Walsh observing in an interview with Rachel Herzog that the Devils looked dominant to start the game. And this line put up a beautiful shift, moving the puck around the zone at will, setting up a sweet Luke Hughes goal! With this goal, Luke matched his entire goal total of the 2025-26 season.
While they only had two shots through the first 15 minutes of the game, the Blues nearly tied the game off a big Cam Fowler shot through some traffic. The iron came in handy for Hellebuyck here, as he was able to fall back on the puck and freeze play as the Blues dug away a bit at him.
Through the first, the Devils were outshooting the Blues 16-4.
Second Period
Timo Meier rang the bar in the second minute of the middle frame, later dropping the gloves on Jake Neighbours for throwing a big hit on Nico Hischier. Timo Meier received an instigator and a 10-minute misconduct despite Nico Hischier having gotten rid of the puck completely before the hit. Thankfully, Neighbours did hit Hischier with very clean technique, but I think the league in general has relaxed a bit too much on the timing of hits.
On the penalty kill, Hischier, Rodrigues, and Luke Hughes went off on a three-on-two. Hughes’s shot went wide, but Rodrigues and Hischier went for the loose puck and held play up by the net for awhile. Nearly a minute later, Connor Hellebuyck made a couple saves on Jimmy Snuggerud to get the Blues’ first unit off the ice. The Devils killed this penalty, allowing just those two shots.
Back at five-on-five the Blues maintained their heightened pace, forcing Connor Hellebuyck to make some big saves in the net. One such play came from Aleksanteri Kaskimäki, who made a great move in close on Luke Hughes — but he didn’t have enough space to beat Hellebuyck.
Despite the chippiness of the game, the Devils would pad their lead when Anthony Mantha took a shift with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt. After Dougie Hamilton had walked in for a chance coming down the right flank, the Devils were forced back into their own end before regaining the offensive zone. This time, Mantha and Jack had a slick give-and-go, as Mantha drove to the net and redirected the pass back past Binnington!
With under five minutes to play, Amadeus Lombardi was tagged for a slashing penalty in a neutral zone board battle, as he slashed Connor McMichael’s stick, which had broken earlier. So, the Blues should have been called for playing with illegal equipment. Of course, the St. Louis Blues would score with their first unit, as Luke Hughes wiped out and allowed a pass across to Robert Thomas to make it 2-1.
Shortly after, Connor Hellebuyck took four slashes with the puck covered under his glove, but no call was made. But the New Jersey Devils don’t need the referees to make good calls: the third line had an offensive zone shift, and Jesper Boqvist had the puck come to him in the middle of the ice. Boqvist took it in and deked Jordan Binnington out of his skates, making it a 3-1 game!
But the third line wasn’t done! Anthony Mantha was sent out on a breakaway, one-handing the puck coming behind him and sliding the puck off his backhand through Binnington’s five hole.
And yet again, the Blues would get away with playing with a broken stick as Johnny Kovacevic took another dubious slashing penalty on Alexey Toropchenko. The Devils would kill the one minute and 22 seconds remaining in the period, sending the game to the third.
Third Period
To start the period, Ross Johnston boarded Jonas Siegenthaler in plain view of an official. No call was made as Siegenthaler limped at a snail’s pace to the bench and then to the locker room.
While they missed a potential major penalty, they did call a slash to the midsection of Lombardi from Robert Thomas a couple minutes later. The Devils were unable to score on this power play, as a few of their shots missed the net.
Back at five-on-five, with Siegenthaler back on the bench for the Devils, the defense suffered again when Declan Chisholm took a dump-in play off of his ear. Chisholm had trouble staying up, holding his hand to his ear as trainers came out onto the ice to help him towards the locker room. Siegenthaler took his first shift after play resumed, taking Jake Neighbours hard into the corner. During this shift, Chisholm also returned to the bench.
Past the halfway point of the period, Jesper Bratt created a turnover at the blueline in the defensive zone, giving his shift a chance for a three-on-one. The Blues backchecked well, and Jack Hughes’s pass to Arseny Gritsyuk was blocked. The Blues turned the puck over again, however, giving Jack a one-on-one with Binnington. Jack tried to deke Binnington down to the ice, but he was unable to beat Binnington’s pad. Keeping with the rebound, Jack just chipped the puck over the crossbar.
This proved to hurt the Devils a bit, as the Blues came down to the other end on a couple shifts later, getting traffic in front of Hellebuyck. Mason McTavish found a rebound through Brett Pesce, making it a 4-2 game with just over eight minutes to play.
On a shot that Connor Hellebuyck is going to want back, Phillip Broberg beat him on the short side on a wide rush. This one stung.
That sting was immediately apparent, as this was followed up with a pass from Hellebuyck right to the Blues, letting them tie the game at 4-4 with five minutes to play. Sheldon Keefe called timeout to calm his group down.
With just over three minutes to play, Jack Hughes deked out his man at the top of the zone and looked like he had a shooting lane on Binnington — but he was hooked. The Devils went to the power play with 3:01 to play.
On the power play, Dougie Hamilton one-timed a shot off the draw, but Binnington made the stop. That was the second unit’s only shot to start the power play, bringing the first unit on the remaining minute. Luke Hughes had a shot blocked, forcing them back. They, too, were unable to generate consistent pressure.
At the very end of the period, Luke Evangelista took the zone against four Blues, but was unable to finish a pass back from Timo Meier with Binnington going down to the ice. He hit the side of the net.
Overtime
The Devils started with Hischier and the Hughes brothers, but Nico lost the draw. Broberg took the puck behind the net and started he breakout, but the Blues went back to their own end for a second entry. The Devils changed, trying to keep possession — but they gave it away.
Timo Meier pinched too hard, giving the Blues a two-on-one against Dougie Hamilton.
Just who we wanted in that spot.
THE DOUG kicked the pass across to his own stick, springing Jesper Bratt on a long breakaway with a pass off the boards. Bratt took it in with quickening pace, not doing too much with the puck. And he beat Binnington under the glove!
Just how they drew it up.
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From the Brink of Collapse to Elation
The New Jersey Devils of last year don’t win this game, given what happened in the third period.
But for the first time in awhile, Sheldon Keefe called a timeout with several minutes to play, turning the team around after they coughed up what should have been an insurmountable lead. Those final five minutes of regulation were far superior to the five minutes that preceded it, and we have to credit Keefe a bit here for pulling this one out. Of course, the overarching message from the team right now is that there was no excuse for this game to go to overtime. There’s really no reason it should have.
But the goaltender needs to be picked up sometimes. The Devils went into coast mode a little too early this game and made it more interesting than it needed to be as a result. Did Connor Hellebuyck have a good game? On the whole, statistically, probably not. But that statistical measure mostly falls on a 30-second span in the final period. Maybe the defense could have communicated more emphatically when he was handling the puck — it looked like he had a play behind him, but he seemed like he was waiting for something or someone and took a bad option.
If you asked Hellebuyck, I imagine he would not be happy with his game for other reasons. I thought the puck seemed like it was bouncing away from him a little more than usual. He might say, oh I should have had a few of those rebounds. And maybe so, but he also made some good saves in big spots. He faced many more shots in the second and third periods than he did in the first. At the end of the day, they got two points. He gave the offense the space they needed to go up 4-1, and they probably could have held St. Louis to fewer shots once they went up three goals. You can’t always do that by sitting back in the defensive zone and playing at a slower speed.
Otherwise, I thought tonight was a great game for the Devils. I don’t really want to focus on all of the negatives. They got hosed, repeatedly, by the officials in the second period. Ross Johnston may have very well gotten away with a five-minute major in the third period. And even though the Devils didn’t make good of the chances they did get on the power play, they were still able to generally outplay the Blues for the first 40 or 50 minutes of the game. I say they take that, try to make the effort a little more cutthroat with the lead, and go into the weekend with a goal of taking four points from the Islanders and Maple Leafs.
We just saw two overtime winners in a row: it’s good to get a little excitement from your team.
Your Thoughts
But what did you think of tonight’s game? Did you think the Devils had a good game? What did you think of the response to the blown lead in the third period? What did you think of Dougie Hamilton’s big play? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and thanks for reading.
