Calgary Flames Sack Towns of Manhattan and Newark

From the desks: RAISE GRESCHNER WITH THE GREATS & THE BRICK CITY STYX

UP IN FLAMES

It's as if Calgary was some ancient civilization that amassed an army, marched East, laid siege to the metropolitan area, and burnt it to the ground upon arrival.

After defeating the Capitals at Washington, the Flames arrived in Manhattan on Monday.  What started as a tightly contested affair quickly deteriorated into a rout.  Igor Shesterkin committed the first of his two cardinal sins when Christopher Tanev scored with just 1:10 left in the opening period.  Then, just over two minutes into the second period, Calgary made it a 2-0 game.  The Rangers showed signs of life at 5:25 of the third period when Kevin Rooney converted feeds from Jacob Trouba and newcomer Dryden Hunt.  Afterwhich, it was flame on.  Calgary scored three unanswered goals.  Shesterkin's second cardinal sin came on a penalty kill with just 0:05 left in regulation giving the Flames a 5-1 final margin of victory.

The Flames next invaded Newark on Tuesday.  They scored four unanswered goals within the first 13 minutes of the game.  Starting between the pipes, Nico Daws yielded three goals on Calgary's first seven shots and was promptly pulled.  In relief, Scott Wedgewood surrendered the Flames' fourth goal of the first period and another midway through the third.  The Devils mustered three goals, two by Pavel Zacha and one by Dawson Mercer.

Calgary has 17 goals in their last four games, with the Steel City dead ahead.  Playing minus Jack Hughes, the Devils have until Saturday's game against the Penguins to recover.  The hope here being Calgary treats Pittsburgh similarly.

N.J. Devils: Straight Out of the Playbook

From the desk: THE BRICK CITY STYX

THURSDAY

Penguins 2

Devils   3

FINAL

As if by design ... I'm sure this was more along the lines of what Lindy Ruff and Tom Fitzgerald had in mind.

New Jersey's 2019 number one draft pick Jack Hughes opens the scoring midway through the first period on assists from Ty Smith and Kyle Palmieri.  After which, the big-name import, P.K. Subban scored on the power play at 8:42 of the second period from feeds by Jesper Bratt and Jack Hughes.  Just over a minute later, Newark's long-time veteran, Travis Zajac puts the game out of reach at the 10:19 mark of the second period with his third goal of the season assisted by Damon Severson.

Goalie Scott Wedgewood takes care of the rest.   It's hard to say the Devils were lucky to come away with the victory because that just isn't the truth.  Jake Guentzel scored during a Penguins power play with a mere 0:13 seconds left in the second period.  Then, with just 0:05 seconds left in the game, Bryan Rust scored making it a 3-2 game and the final margin of victory for New Jersey.  Otherwise, Scott  Wedgewood faced a season-high 42 shots on goal en route to his third win of the season.  Sidney Crosby accounted for eight shots (and no points).  It's the second time in the last eleven days Wedgewood needed to make at least 40 saves in a game, as this contest harkens back to Wedgewoods's 1-0 shut out of the Bruins.

New Jersey's 2018 first-round pick, Ty Smith picked up his twelfth assist of the season, and with two points, Jack Hughes now has 16 points in 27 games.  Now in his 15th season with over 1,000 games played with the Devils, Travis Zajac with an assist picked up point number 543 of his career.

With victories over Buffalo and now Pittsburgh, the Devils win back-to-back games for the first time in a full month, when they defeated the Rangers and Bruins in their first two games back on the ice after returning from COVID quarantine protocol.