Adam Henrique notched his first career hat trick, producing the milestone against his former team Sunday night as the visiting Anaheim Ducks earned a rare win by beating the New Jersey Devils 5-1 in Newark, N.J.
Henrique, who played one game for the Devils during the 2010-11 season then spent the next six-plus seasons with New Jersey, entered Sunday with 26 two-goal efforts in 858 NHL games.
Alex Killorn and Troy Terry also scored for the Ducks, who snapped a five-game skid and won for just the second time in 15 games (2-13-0). Goalie John Gibson earned the victory after making 18 saves in the first two periods before exiting due to illness. Lukas Dostal stopped all 10 shots he faced in the third.
Michael McLeod scored for the Devils, who lost for just the third time in 11 games (8-3-0) but fell to 1-5-1 in the second game of a back-to-back set. Goalie Akira Schmid recorded 22 saves.
Jesper Bratt was whistled for cross-checking in the final two seconds of a scoreless first to generate the power play that yielded Henrique’s first goal 1:46 into the second. Henrique redirected Pavel Mintyukov’s shot from the blue line before the puck skittered between Schmid’s legs.
Mintyukov and Henrique teamed up for a four-on-four goal just under 10 minutes later, when Mintyukov deked a shot and dished into the crease to Henrique, who had the puck glance off his skate before he tucked a shot into the wide-open right corner of the net with 8:43 left.
A Ducks turnover in the final minute led to the goal by McLeod. The center and Curtis Lazar threaded their way through traffic while exchanging the puck before McLeod scored with 43.3 seconds left.
The Ducks ended any hopes of a Devils comeback by scoring twice in the first half of the third. Jackson LaCombe, stationed at the top of the left faceoff circle, found a wide-open Killorn across the ice before Killorn buried a shot into the nearly empty net at the 4:14 mark.
Terry rang a shot off the right post to extend the lead to 4-1 with 10:03 left.
Devils head coach Lindy Ruff pulled Schmid during a power play with 7:39 remaining, but Henrique capped his milestone night by scoring an empty-netter with 5:48 left.
–Field Level Media
