The New Jersey Devils have carried the NHL’s best home-ice advantage into the second quarter of the season.
They will try to extend their home point streak to 10 games when they face the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night in Newark, N.J.
The Devils improved 8-0-1 at home by holding off the Detroit Red Wings 4-3 Monday night. The franchise-record home point streak is 10 games (8-0-2), set between Oct. 8 and Dec. 6, 2016.
“It’s great winning at home,” Devils goaltender Jacob Markstrom said. “We’ve played a lot of road games lately and I think this group needed to come home, play in front of the home fans, play at ‘The Rock’ and kind of settle a little bit and obviously get away with two points.”
With top center Jack Hughes sidelined after finger surgery, New Jersey suffered three straight losses to close its last road trip. It took a stellar performance from Markstrom to end that slide.
He made 32 saves against Detroit, his most since Nov. 1. Markstrom will be the likely starter against the Blues.
“He’s the reason why you get the two points,” New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said after the victory. “We had to scratch and claw for this one, and get some good fortune and great goaltending, but this will serve us going forward.”
The Devils got a bit healthier when forward Cody Glass returned after missing four games with an upper-body injury. He scored the final marker of their three-goal first period.
St. Louis will conclude a five-game Eastern Conference road trip with this matchup. The Blues went 1-1-2 in the first four games.
The Blues will seek more offense Wednesday after scoring just nine goals during their last five games. Coach Jim Montgomery keeps shuffling his forward lines while searching for combinations that click.
St. Louis fell 3-2 to the New York Rangers on Monday. The Blues had a golden opportunity on a four-minute power play late in the game, but they failed to score.
With goaltender Joel Hofer pulled off the ice for an extra attacker, the Blues managed to score once while playing 6-on-5 but could not get the tying goal after that.
“There were a couple (power-play) shots that were passed up, and we whiffed on a great chance to tie the game up right at the net front in the pulled goalie situation,” Montgomery said. “We need to start making some of those plays in those areas so we can have wins when we come from behind and get on a streak.”
Jordan Binnington will likely start in goal against the Devils. He is 2-0-2 with a 2.65 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage in his last four starts.
But the Blues hope to give Binnington more help than Hofer got against the Rangers.
“I didn’t think we played with the requisite of intensity and connectedness and puck support that we’ve been playing with the three previous games,” Montgomery said.
“We’ve had some good spurts, but as a group we know we need to bring a full 60 (minutes),” Blues defenseman Colton Parayko said. “That’s important in this league, there’s a lot a good teams.”
–Field Level Media
