Devils erase early Canucks lead behind Nico Hischier’s three-point night

An early edge that disappeared fast

The Canucks found the first breakthrough at 5:27 of the opening period when Linus Karlsson scored on a snap shot, with Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk collecting the assists. For a brief stretch, that gave Vancouver exactly the sort of road start it wanted: one clean finish and a lead before the game had settled into a long chase.

New Jersey removed that advantage quickly. Hischier tied the game at 8:03 on a wrist shot set up by Arseny Gritsyuk and Luke Hughes, wiping out Vancouver’s lead just 2:36 after Karlsson had opened the scoring. The Devils did not stop there. Jesper Boqvist scored at 16:24, with Amadeus Lombardi drawing the lone assist, and the first period ended with New Jersey ahead 2-1 after Vancouver had been in front earlier in the frame.

The second period turned a comeback into control

The game’s decisive push came in the middle period. Jesper Bratt extended the Devils’ lead to 3-1 at 4:36, finishing a play started by Hischier and Jack Hughes. That goal gave New Jersey breathing room and forced Vancouver to spend the rest of the night trying to cut into a two-goal deficit rather than simply answering for the equalizer.

The Devils added the final goal with 10 seconds left in the second. Hischier struck again at 19:50 on a snap shot, with Jack Hughes and Bratt earning the assists, and the 4-1 score carried unchanged through the third period. That late-period finish mattered because it ended any chance for Vancouver to enter the intermission down only two and instead left the Canucks needing three goals in the final 20 minutes.

The third period produced no scoring, but the numbers underline how much work Vancouver still had to do. New Jersey’s goaltender stopped 20 of 21 shots for a .952 save percentage, while the Canucks’ goalie made 33 saves on 37 shots. That works out to a 37-21 edge in shots on goal for the Devils, a gap that matched the way the night tilted after Vancouver’s early opener.

Our take

For Vancouver, the frustration is easy to identify even without dressing it up. The Canucks got the first goal, then went the final 54:33 without another one. On a night when they generated 21 shots on goal, they needed either a sharper finishing run or a cleaner way to limit the volume coming back the other way. Getting only one goal from that start left almost no margin once New Jersey began stacking answers.

The defensive burden was heavy. A 33-save performance from Vancouver’s netminder usually means the skaters in front of him spent long stretches under pressure, and allowing 37 shots is a difficult recipe on the road. The Canucks were not buried by one wild sequence; they were worn down by four separate scoring plays spread across the first two periods, including the late second-period goal that pushed the margin to three.

New Jersey, meanwhile, got the kind of distribution contenders want. Hischier finished with two goals and an assist, Bratt had a goal and an assist, and Jack Hughes supplied two assists. Boqvist added a first-period go-ahead goal, and Lombardi and Gritsyuk each chipped in their first assists of the night. The Devils did not need one explosive burst. They answered the opening setback, built the lead in layers and then closed the door with a scoreless third.

Scoring moments

1. 1st · 5:27

   Linus Karlsson Goal (1) Snap Shot, assists: Brock Boeser (3), Jake DeBrusk (2)

2. 1st · 8:03

   Nico Hischier Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Arseny Gritsyuk (1), Luke Hughes (1)

3. 1st · 16:24

   Jesper Boqvist Goal (2) Wrist Shot, assists: Amadeus Lombardi (1)

4. 2nd · 4:36

   Jesper Bratt Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Nico Hischier (1), Jack Hughes (2)

5. 2nd · 19:50

   Nico Hischier Goal (2) Snap Shot, assists: Jack Hughes (3), Jesper Bratt (3)