The cards were stacked against the New Jersey Devils as they took the ice at Prudential Center on Saturday afternoon.
Another injury was announced: Simon Nemec sustained a lower-body injury, forcing Dennis Cholowski to jump back into the lineup. The club was also without Arseny Gritsyuk, who is dealing with an upper-body injury. It was Juho Lammikko who was called upon to fill that hole in the forward group.
As the Devils went through their pregame warmups on one side of the ice, on the other was Anaheim Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal. The 25-year-old entered Newark with an impressive 3-0-0 record against the Devils with a goals-against average of 1.80 and a .954 save percentage.
With injuries continuing to mount, Devils' head coach Sheldon Keefe used the following lineup: Jesper Bratt - Nico Hischier - Dawson Mercer
Ondrej Palat -Cody Glass - Connor Brown
Paul Cotter - Juho Lammikko - Stefan Noesen
Xavier Parent - Luke Glendening - Angus Crookshank
Jonas Siegenthaler - Dougie Hamilton
Brenden Dillon - Luke Hughes
Dennis Cholowski - Colton White
Jake Allen
At the 13:18 mark of the first period, Troy Terry opened the scoring for Anaheim. It was the sixth straight game that New Jersey surrendered the game’s opening goal. While it was easy to say, “Here we go again,” as the Devils have dropped five of their last six games, the players on New Jersey’s bench had other ideas.
It was not Hischier or Bratt who led the Devils to a 4-1 victory. It was the trio of Lammikko, Noesen, and Cotter, who combined for four points.
Lammikko was the surprise performer, picking up two primary assists. Since signing a one-year, $800,000 contract, the 29-year-old has appeared in 16 games for the Devils, averaging 9:53 of ice time. On Saturday afternoon, he picked up two primary assists and went 7-for-10 in the face-off circle.
“His game was trending really well," Keefe said of Lammikko. "I thought he was outstanding today in all three zones. [..] Really happy he stayed with it, kept a real good attitude through it all, waited for his opportunity and made a difference today."
Other contributors included Palat, who picked up two primary assists, his first points since Dec 1. White celebrated his first multi-assist game and has points in his last two games, and Glass extended his point streak to a season-high three games.
“Tremendous team effort right from the start of the game all the way through,” Keefe told NJD.TV. “We had great effort, with great effort you get better structure, with better structure you are taking care of each other out there. It is an easier game for everybody involved.”
The Devils will return to action Sunday afternoon when they host the Vancouver Canucks.