Hall leads Devils past Canucks
NEWARK, N.J. -- Taylor Hall had a goal and two assists, Brian Boyle and Damon Severson each scored, and Cory Schneider made 23 saves to lead the New Jersey Devils to a 3-2 victory against the Vancouver Canucks on Friday.
The Canucks (11-9-3) cut their deficit to 3-2 midway through the third period while on the power play. Bo Horvat took a pass from Daniel Sedin, spun around in front of the net, and flipped the puck past Schneider.
Hall got his third point of the night when the Devils (13-5-4) took a 3-1 lead late in the second period. He took a stretch pass from Nico Hischier that put him on a breakaway, and his backhand shot hit square against the post. Defenseman Damon Severson followed up his attempt though and flipped the puck into an open net.
New Jersey retook the lead at 2-1 on a Boyle power-play goal midway through the second period. Will Butcher skated through the Vancouver defense creating a 2-on-1, before he slid the puck over to Boyle who one-timed it inside the left post.
Boyle was part of a pregame ceremony for the Devils Hockey Fights Cancer Awareness night. The 32-year-old forward was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid/Myelogenous Leukemia during training camp, and missed the first 10 games of the regular season.
The Sedin twins teamed up to tie the game for Vancouver just over 200 seconds after New Jersey took a 1-0 lead. Daniel threw a puck toward the crease from behind the goal line, and it deflected by Blake Coleman, who was tying up Henrik atop the crease.
Hall opened the scoring 2:15 into the second period. After he skated the puck into the zone, he made his way to the other side, and whipped a Nico Hischier pass from below the goal line under the crossbar and over the glove of Jacob Markstrom to put New Jersey up 1-0.
NOTES: Canucks D Troy Stecher and Chris Tanev each returned to the Vancouver lineup on Friday. Stecher (knee) and Tanev (thumb) had missed the past 14 and seven games, respectively. ... Devils F Marcus Johansson (concussion) skated on Thursday, and could rejoin New Jersey practice next week, according to head coach John Hynes. Johansson has missed the past 10 games. ... With the two assists, Daniel Sedin now has 998 career points.