The Devils are sixth in the Metropolitan Division with a record of 11-9-1.
The New Jersey Devils earned their third straight victory Thursday night at Wells Fargo Center, beating the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime by a final score of 4-3.
Entering the game, the Flyers had a record of 0-9-1 when trailing first. That statistic would prove revealing as Alexander Holtz scored the game's opening goal 3:10 into the first period. After 20 minutes, the Devils had a 2-0 lead, with Jack Hughes scoring his eighth goal of the season with a little under five minutes remaining in the opening frame.
Philadelphia fired 25 shots on Devils' goaltender Akira Schmid in the second period, leading to Morgan Frost getting his team within one on the power play. After two periods, the Devils led the Flyers 2-1.
Tyler Toffoli scored an early power-play goal in the third period, extending his team's lead to two. The Flyers fought their way back into the game, scoring two goals in the last five minutes, including Tyson Foerster's game-tying goal on the power play with under one minute left to play.
Overtime did not last long as Nico Hischier passed the puck to Jack Hughes, who dished it to his brother Luke for the game-winning goal. According to NHL PR, "Luke Hughes became the seventh rookie defenseman in NHL history with multiple overtime goals, joining Shayne Gostisbehere, Moritz Seider, Cam Fowler, P.K. Subban, Jamie McBain, and Brent Seabrook.
"Got a stick on the Sandheim shot, deflected and Nico won the battle, popped it up to Jack and I just beat my man up the ice. It's pretty easy to put in the net when it's right in your wheelhouse," Hughes said.
Five Things
1. Alexander Holtz
Holtz has a newfound confidence in his game, and it's not because he is playing alongside the team's superstars. The young Swede has been skating alongside Michael McLeod and Curtis Lazar over the past few games, and it has brought out the best in him.
The 21-year-old has four points in his last four games, and against the Flyers, he replaced Jesper Bratt on the team's top power-play unit.
"I think when you look at the early power play, we didn't shoot a lot," head coach Lindy Ruff said. "I think when you put (Holtz) on the flank, it gives you another shot option. ...(he) attracted some attention, and it opened up Toffoli in the hole, and all of a sudden, Toffoli was able to score."
"It just gets you more confident that you can score at this level as well," Holtz said, "I put up good numbers in the (AHL), but I'm starting to put the puck in the net here. It's obviously a huge confidence boost."
2. The Devils Briefly Lose Luke Hughes
In the waning minutes of the opening frame, Garnet Hathaway crunched Luke Hughes into the boards near Akra Schmid's net. While his teammates jumped to his defense, the youngest Hughes brother got up and skated down the tunnel.
To the relief of many, he skated out with his team for the start of the second period and began the middle frame quarterbacking his team's power play.
He finished the game with 21:45 ice time, the second-most among defensemen. Post-game, he said he had to go through concussion protocol during the first intermission before he was able to return to action.
Hathaway was handed a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct.
3. Colin Miller Earns His First Point as a Devil
"(I) just (want to bring) stability. I think there's such a good core of defensemen here. I think as a unit, we can be really good, so I'm just going to help out wherever I can."
Since Miller made his Devils debut, he has done precisely that. Over the past seven games, he has quietly gone about his business, not making the flashiest plays but the necessary ones.
Against the Flyers, he earned a secondary assist on Holtz's goal, marking his first point in a Devils sweater.
4. Smith Will Have Hearing
NHL Player Safety announced that Brendan Smith will have a hearing Friday for slashing Philadlephia's Travis Konecny.
The incident happened in the final minutes of the third period. Smith was called for a slashing penalty, which led to the Flyers scoring the game-tying goal.
5. Laberge Makes NHL Debut
At 26-years-old, Samuel Laberge made his NHL debut. After the game, he shared that his sister and girlfriend were in attendance at Wells Fargo Center.
"It was amazing," he said. "A lot of emotion and feeling in my head; I was kind of seeing blurry. After a couple of laps, it was great. The group was awesome to bring me in and make me feel comfortable."