Stingy Devils open home-and-home with Hurricanes

The New Jersey Devils hope the momentum they built leading up to the NHL's holiday break will carry over after the three days off, as the Metropolitan Division leaders start a two-day, home-and-home series with the third-place Carolina Hurricanes on Friday in Newark, N.J.

Coach Sheldon Keefe's team has won five of its last six games, including the previous two by shutouts. Jacob Markstrom stopped a dozen shots in the Devils' 5-0 win over the visiting New York Rangers on Monday. That came just two days after he made 12 saves in a 3-0 home victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

According to the league's record book, the Devils have posted three straight shutouts once, April 1-6, 1997.

Jack Hughes scored two goals and added an assist in Monday's win. Timo Meier and Dawson Mercer each notched a goal and an assist, and Jesper Bratt and Luke Hughes both recorded a pair of assists.

The Devils' offense has been on display during the last six games, with the team scoring 19 times in the five wins. However, the team's defense has been playing equally as strong. New Jersey has not allowed an opponent to put more than 20 shots on goal in seven games. That's the longest such streak since the NHL started tracking the stat beginning in the 1955-56 season.

It's a streak Keefe didn't even know the league tracked when he talked to reporters after the win over the Rangers, but he said it is the result of a team showing the willingness to defend the middle of the rink and keeping the opposition from getting multiple attempts on scoring chances.

"Whether it's having the puck well and managing it well or closing space when we don't have it, it's just a really tremendous buy-in and commitment from our guys," Keefe said. "Couldn't ask for more in that regard."

That shot-on-goal streak may be in jeopardy Friday as the Devils face a Hurricanes team that averages 31.6 shots per game.

Carolina wraps up a four-game road trip Friday. On Monday, it lost for the second time in three contests, falling 5-2 against the Nashville Predators. The Hurricanes trailed 4-0 less than three minutes into the third period before Jordan Staal and Sebastian Aho scored 40 seconds apart, but that was as close as the team would get.

Coach Rod Brind'Amour told reporters afterward the Hurricanes' struggles of late are not due to a lack of effort.

"We got to keep working it, trying to find the right combinations to spice things," he said. "We know a couple things that we know work, and then it's just finding the rest. But (Monday), we just as a group weren't hard enough to play against for the majority of the game, and we got what we deserved."

The holiday break may have come at an opportune time for Martin Necas. The center continues to lead Carolina in scoring, with 44 points (14 goals, 30 assists) in 34 games. However, the 25-year-old Czech is mired in a season-long eight-game goal drought. He's gone the last four games without an assist, which is another season-long streak, and has posted only one in his last six.

--Field Level Media