“He’s been a ‘wow’ factor,” Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville said of Carlsson. “He brings speed through the middle of the ice, and a lot of times he has possession of the puck, and he can back (the defense) off and loosen up coverage and open things up for his wingers.”
Carlsson extended his point streak to a career-high five games.
Chris Kreider, who returned to action after missing four prior games with hand-foot-and-mouth disease, made his impact felt with a power play goal.
“We certainly got our looks on the power play,” Kreider said. “We had to make a couple of adjustments but got our opportunities and finally got a couple looks so it was a good time to punch one there in the third and give us a little breathing room.”
New Jersey heads down the freeway after a 4-1 bounceback victory over the Kings on Saturday night. The Devils previously lost two straight, but their win was aided by goals from Nico Hischier, Dawson Mercer (2), and Brian Halonen, who scored the first goal of his NHL career. Jacob Markstrom had 43 saves in the win over L.A., good for the most in his career with New Jersey.
Getting off to a hot start will be key for Anaheim as per NHL.com, the Devils are 6-0-0 when they open the scoring.
