The New Jersey Devils, led by Jacob Markstrom, defeated the Utah Mammoth 2-1.
Markstrom allowed just one goal past him, earning a .970 save percentage, and stopping 32 of the 33 shots he faced.
Following the game, head coach Sheldon Keefe spoke with NJD.tv about Markstrom’s strong performance.
"This one is on him tonight," Keefe said. "We don’t get the opportunity to hang around in the game and have big moments like we did in the third with the penalty kill and power play, if not for Marky and how held us in. We were outplayed for long stretches of the game, but it’s going to happen from time to time.”
Brett Pesce, who returned to the lineup on December 17, echoed Keefe’s praise.
“It’s great, it instills so much confidence, it started with Marky tonight, he was a brick wall back there," Pesce said. "Without him, I don’t know that we win this game. When we’re getting those timely saves, we feed off of that with our defensive structure. Kudos to him.”
The game was close; in the third period, the Devils killed off a 6-on-4 to secure the victory. Connor Brown credited Markstrom for keeping the Mammoth off the board.
"Marky deserved the win at that point, it was a bit scrambly, maybe a bit more scrambly than we would have liked, but they got two extra guys on the ice, so it was nice to gut one out.”
The Devils pulled off the win and improved to 20-14-1. The team now gears up to take on the Buffalo Sabres at home on Sunday.
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