Devils get tough with Islanders
DEVILS 4 ISLANDERS 0
Jack Hughes and Timo Meier each notched a goal and an assist, Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 37 shots in his first shutout of the season and the Devils beat the Islanders, 4-0, Sunday night.
Alexander Holtz and Chris Tierney also scored for the Devils. Kahkonen, acquired at the trade deadline, earned his first win as a member of the Devils.
Devils captain Nico Hischier left the game late in the second period after colliding with the Isles’ Anders Lee. Lee received a major penalty and a game misconduct. Hischier did return at the start of the third period.
Ilya Sorokin finished with 26 saves for the Islanders, who lost for the seventh time in eight games. The Isles are four points behind Washington in the race for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with 11 games left in the regular season.
The Devils scored three times in a 5:34 span early in the second period.
Meier buried a tap-in opportunity 38 seconds into the period as the Devils capitalized on a 5-on-3 power play. Hughes found Meier alone outside the crease after he slipped behind the Islanders defense.
“Its always important to capitalize on the power play,” Meier said. “Especially when you get the chance to go out in the second period, start on fresh ice . ... Jack made an unbelievable play and that kind of jump-started our period and we built off of it.”
Meier later received 17 penalty minutes when he fought Lee following what appeared to be a knee-on-knee collision with Hischier.
“It was a dirty hit,” Meier said. “I had to step in and let him know, that’s it.”
The Devils took advantage of a number of mistakes by the Islanders to stretch their lead to three goals. It was the sixth time in the last seven games that the Isles allowed three goals in a period.
“We made a few mistakes and they took a 3-0 lead,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “We dig ourselves a big hole and we couldn’t get out of it today . ... We didn’t generate enough to come back in that game.”
Hughes converted an odd-man rush opportunity with a wrist shot past the blocker of Sorokin. Three Islanders collided in the offensive zone, leading to the scoring chance.