Devils Road Success Continues with 4-1 Win over Flyers

The Devils celebrate after a goal against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night. New Jersey won the game 4-1. Photo Credit: www.beaumontenterprise.com

EAST HANOVER, NJ – The New Jersey Devils (5-4-1) probably wish all their games were away from Newark the rest of the way. They won their fourth straight road game in a dominating 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers (4-3-2) on Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

The Devils are now 4-1 away this season and won only once at the Prudential Center in five tries.

Down 1-0 late in the second period, veteran center Travis Zajac opened the scoring for New Jersey when he tipped in a hard pass from Kyle Palmieri on a power-play opportunity. Palmieri scored the second goal of the game early in the third and then once again fed Zajac on the man advantage just 64 seconds later to give the Devils a 3-1 edge.

“All I had to do was put my stick on the ice,” Zajac told NHL.com. “Great plays by [Palmieri]. He’s good back there on the point. He’s got his head up and he’s smart with the puck.”

Zajac now has seven points in the past five games. He recorded zero points in the first four contests that he played.

Goaltender Cory Schneider also had a strong outing for New Jersey. He made 27 stops, including some key saves in the first two periods when the game was scoreless.

New Jersey has now won five of six games after dropping their first three of the year. They bounced back nicely after a tough 3-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets (2-8) on Tuesday night.

“We talked about that in between the first and second period; we’re facing the same test and we have to have a better response than we did the other night,” first year head-coach John Hynes said. “We did.”

The success on the power-play that New Jersey is having probably comes as a surprise to many. They are ranked ninth overall in the NHL, operating at 22.6 percent with seven tallies.

They had their second two-goal effort on the man advantage after doing the same against the Ottawa Senators in a 5-4 shootout win earlier in the season.

“They’ve made good decisions when we’ve gotten to our sets,” Hynes said. “They’re not forcing plays, and I think that’s important when you have skilled players, they’re taking what’s given to them and finding a way to get the puck to the net from that. And we’ve tried to continue to do a good job of getting up the ice, getting in to get to our sets. Once we get there, we’re good, but where we have trouble sometimes is when we can’t beat the pressure. Tonight we did.”

Defenseman Andy Greene scored his first goal of the season in the final seconds of the third when he fired a puck down the ice into the open cage. The Flyers had pulled their goaltender Steve Mason in an attempt to better their chances at getting a few goals on the board when the score was 3-1.

Now, the trick, or treat, for the Devils is to find out how to bring their road success into the Prudential Center for their home fans. They will look to do so when they take on the New York Islanders (6-2-2) on Halloween, this Saturday at 1 p.m.