NEWARK, N.J. – Ask anyone what is fun about a visit to northern New Jersey, and they’re more than likely going to draw a blank.
The same goes for the Minnesota Wild, who found little to enjoy in their lone visit to the den of the Devils this season.
Off to the hottest start in the NHL this season, New Jersey scored in each period and shut down the Wild’s suddenly struggling power play, winning 4-1 on Wednesday and handing Minnesota its fourth loss in the past five games.
Minnesota goalie Filip Gustavsson kept it close but lacked offensive support, making 32 saves as he fell to 2-4-0 this season.
The Wild’s rare highlight came just past the midway point of the third, with Minnesota trailing by three, when Matt Boldy wired a long-range shot just under the crossbar to spoil New Jersey’s shutout bid. It was the fifth goal of the season for Boldy, tying him for the team lead with Kirill Kaprizov.
Minnesota fell to 3-4-1 overall, while the Devils are now 6-1-0.
It was mostly a defensive battle for the Wild in the early part of the game. They killed a Devils power play in the opening three minutes, and got some puck luck as well. New Jersey center Dawson Mercer had a wide open net to shoot at, with Gustavsson down after making a save, but Mercer’s shot deflected off the shaft of Marco Rossi’s stick and over the net.
Gustavsson stopped the first 13 shots sent his way before New Jersey winger Paul Cotter got his first goal of the season, slipping a low shot between the goalie’s knees, following Connor Brown’s set-up pass from below the goal line. Minnesota was outshot 14-7 in the opening 20 minutes.
The goalie was again tested early in the middle frame when Wild captain Jared Spurgeon was stripped of the puck at the blue line, springing New Jersey star Jack Hughes on a breakaway. But Gustavsson made a pad save to squelch the scoring opportunity.
The reprieve was temporary, as the Devils doubled the lead before the period’s midway point when defenseman Brenden Dillon sent a puck in from the blue line and it fooled the goalie over his left shoulder.
Minnesota’s power play — which was the league’s best after four games this season but has notably cooled off lately — got an opportunity later in the second. New Jersey’s penalty killers, who have been the NHL’s best this season, were having none of it, negating the man advantage without allowing a shot on goal. The Wild’s second power play produced shots, but no goals as they headed to the second intermission down 2-0.
And when Minnesota took a third-period penalty, the Devils’ power play needed just three seconds to make it a three-goal lead, as Arseny Gritsyuk scored the first of his career with a wrist shot immediately following the faceoff to the right of Gustavsson.
Jesper Bratt added an empty-net goal for New Jersey, which makes its lone visit to Minnesota this season on Monday, Jan. 12.
It was the final night of a five-game road trip — their second-longest of the season — in which the Wild went 1-3-1. With Devils mainstay goalie Jacob Markstrom sidelined due to a lower body injury, third-stringer Nico Daws made his first start of the season for New Jersey, stopping 29 shots.
Following their extended road trip, the Wild return to Grand Casino Arena for a six-game homestand, beginning on Saturday when they host the Utah Mammoth with a 5 p.m. CT opening faceoff.
Briefly
The Devils’ broadcast team on MSG Network for Wednesday night included Minnesota native Rachel Herzog and retired goaltender Cory Schneider, who was very familiar to Wild fans a decade or so ago. Herzog was a standout defender at Hill-Murray and at St. Cloud State, where she studied broadcasting before joining the New Jersey TV team a year ago. Schneider, who hung up the pads in 2023 after more than 400 NHL games, was the backup for the Vancouver Canucks in the early 2010s. Vancouver starter Roberto Luongo often struggled in games versus the Wild in St. Paul, meaning that Schneider would commonly enter in the second period after Luongo was yanked. Before Wednesday’s game, Schneider joked that the Canucks eventually just named him the starter in road games versus the Wild.
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