*Photo from NJ.com*
The rebuild is over, the light at the end of the tunnel has been reached. Nico Hischier had two assists, Jack Hughes had a goal and an assist, and the New Jersey Devils defeated the Ottawa Senators with a 5-3 victory on Saturday in Newark.
Entering the game needing to win to secure a playoff spot, the Devils instead got their ticket punched in the first period when the Florida Panthers lost to the New York Rangers. It's the Devils first playoff spot since 2017-2018, when they were eliminated by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 5 games.
Devils head coach Lindy Ruff said of the accomplishment that "I went into the dressing room after the game and said I'm proud of the work that was put in, proud of where we got to clinch tonight, and to be one of three teams that have an X next to their name. Part one, we set our goal to play meaningful games and to be in the playoffs, so we accomplished that. Part two is to make sure we don't mess up what happened in part one."
Starting the scoring in the game was Brady Tkachuk, who gave the Senators a 1-0 lead 3:14 into the game, tallying his 33rd goal of the season with Tim Stutzle assisting. On the power play at the 10:21 mark of the first, Hughes scored his 40th goal of the season for the Devils to tie the game at a 1-1 score unassisted.
Jesper Bratt scored unassisted 2:24 into the second period to give the Devils a 2-1 lead. Just over a minute later, Dawson Mercer found the back of the net to make the score 3-1 with an assist from Hischier. Thomas Chabot scored his 11th goal of the season for Ottawa to cut the deficit to 3-2 before Mark Kastelic tied the game 3-3 after two periods.
Early in the 3rd period, the Devils retook the lead, this time for good. Dougie Hamilton scored his 19th goal of the season with assists from Hughes and Ondrej Palat, making it 4-3. With just 43 seconds left on the clock, Tomas Tatar sealed the 5-3 win for the Devils with an empty net goal, assisted by Hischier and John Marino.
Bratt said of clinching a playoff spot after the game that "I would say at a younger age, it’s kind of like you think that just because it happened your first year that it might happen every year. And then it goes pretty fast with reality that was not the case and you got to work extremely hard for it. It’s a really tough league. So this feels really good. It’s been a lot of years with struggle, not winning, and it’s just awesome coming out now playing these kinds of games and getting that."
Getting the start for the Devils was MacKenzie Blackwood, who picked up the win in his first start since February 19 due to injury. Blackwood stopped 25 of the 28 shots from the Senators, good for a .893 save percentage. Blackwood's record now stands at 9-5-2 this season.
It was Dylan Ferguson who started for the Senators, who got stuck with the loss as he fell to 1-1-0 in two starts this season. Ferguson turned away 30 out of the 34 shots on goal the Devils had, recording a .882 save percentage.
Senators head coach DJ Smith said of the loss to the Devils "That's a good team, some speedy forwards. I thought we had some looks in the third period, and we did everything that we could. We tried. They just find a way to win."
Up next, both teams resume play on Monday. The Devils take on the New York Islanders on the road, with Vitek Vanecek expected to start. Mads Sogaard is lined up to start for the Senators as they welcome the Florida Panthers to town.
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