In Newark, the New Jersey Devils scored four times in the first period en route to a 7-2 win over the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.
“We came out quick, speed through the neutral zone, speed on the entries,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “When you add a player like Nico, it kind of pushes the players back in position and gave us a little bit more depth in the top couple of lines, so I liked a lot about how we came out.”
Alexander Holtz and Tyler Toffoli opened the scoring to give New Jersey a 2-0 lead.
“It was one of those games we’ve been searching for, and definitely the past couple games have been really disappointing within our group and it’s been really frustrating,” Toffoli said. “So we’ve got to use this as a stepping stone and know that’s the bar for us.”
Nico Hischier returned to the New Jersey lineup and scored to make it 3-0.
“I wanted to come back, and I thought today was the right moment and I’m glad I came back and was able to help the team,” Hischier said. “When we play four lines, bring the effort, that intensity, then we play Devils hockey. We’ve got to just bring that more consistently.”
Ondrej Palat ballooned the lead to 4-0 at 18:37.
Buffalo dropped to 9-10-2.
“It’s very disappointing; this was self-inflicted, and we just didn’t work hard enough,” Buffalo coach Don Granato said. “We had a struggling first period. There were too many goals on breakdowns, and that’s how goals are scored in the NHL.”
Jeff Skinner got one goal back for the Sabres at 1:53 to cut the deficit to 4-1.
“We weren’t very good tonight and, a quarter of the season in, time is of the essence,” the Sabres’ Connor Clifton said.
Toffoli scored his double at 2:44 to push the lead back to four at 5-1.
“He’s just a good pro who cares about winning,” Ruff said of Toffoli. “There’s parts of his game that I really believe players that we have, who are around him, can take. Some of it is that hard compete and some of it is the hard decisions he makes. He cares about winning. He cares about playing the game the right way. He’s been in the battles, and that experience can be helpful to a lot of our guys.”
Dawson Mercer scored with just 50 seconds gone in the third period to extend the lead to 6-1.
Kyle Okposo added a cosmetic goal at 3:55 to make it 6-2, before Luke Hughes scored off the power-play goal at 5:38 for the 7-2 final.
Eric Comrie got the start for the Sabres and made 14 saves, surrendering four goals, before getting the hook in the first intermission.
Devon Levi made 17 saves in a mop up role.
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