Jesper Bratt recorded his second career hat trick and Stefan Noesen scored two goals, lifting the New Jersey Devils to a 6-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Thursday in Sunrise, Fla.
Dawson Mercer also scored, Jack Hughes set up three goals and captain Nico Hischier also notched three assists while winning 18 of 23 faceoffs.
The Devils scored three power-play goals to defeat the Panthers for the second time in three days. New Jersey recorded a 4-1 victory over Florida on Tuesday and has won seven of its last nine games overall.
Jake Allen turned aside 25 shots for the Devils to outduel Sergei Bobrovsky (23 saves) and send the Panthers to their second loss following a seven-game winning streak.
Florida’s Sam Reinhart scored his team-leading 13th goal of the season and eighth in his last eight games.
Jesper Boqvist tallied against his former team, and captain Aleksander Barkov set up a goal to extend his assist streak to seven games, tying a career high, for the Panthers. Sam Bennett added a helper in his return from a one-game absence due to an upper-body injury.
Noesen opened the scoring midway into the first period, but Boqvist forged a 1-1 tie two minutes later by slipping the puck between the legs of Devils defenseman Dougie Hamilton before tucking it past Allen for his third goal of the season. Bratt answered with a power-play tally two seconds before the end of the first.
Reinhart scored off a faceoff in the left circle to forge a 2-2 tie at 4:45 of the second period before the Devils answered just 71 seconds later.
With his team on the power play, Hughes’ attempted centering feed caromed off the skate of Florida defenseman Dmitry Kulikov and into the net. The goal was later credited to Mercer, who was in the same area as Kulikov at the net front.
Noesen converted a centering feed from Hischier to stake New Jersey to a 4-2 lead with 11 seconds left in the second. The latter goal was Noesen’s ninth of the season and fourth in his last six games.
Bratt’s wrist shot from the right circle slipped past Bobrovsky at 3:50 of the third period. He completed the hat trick by scoring into an empty net with 5:12 to play.
–Field Level Media
