Devils Pull Out Thrilling OT Win Vs. Canucks | GAME STORY

The Devils watched a 4-1 lead evaporate, but still pulled out two points in a 5-4 overtime victory Monday night against Vancouver at Prudential Center.
The Devils received two goals each from Jack Hughes and Ondrej Palat, and a power-play OT winner from Jesper Bratt.
Vancouver goal scorers were Andrei Kuzmenko, Luke Schenn, Curtis Lazar and Phillip DiGiuseppe.
It was the Devils sixth overtime game in the past seven games (5-1), and has won 14 of their last 16 against Vancouver.
"I thought we were pretty good. It was a weird one. We just came off that break," Hughes said. "We came out really hot in the second. We let the game get away from us a little bit and in the third we were on our heels a little bit.
"A win's a win and we're going to take it. We all know we need to be a lot better against Seattle on Thursday."

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The Devils finish their brief two-game homestand against the Seattle Kraken Thursday. The game can be seen on MSG and heard on the Devils Hockey Network, including right here at NewJerseyDevils.com. Puck drop is 7:08 p.m. ET.
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Here are some observations from the game...
- The Devils blew open a wide 4-1 lead in a 50-second span in the second period. Goals from Ondrej Palat (2) and Jack Hughes made it look like the contest would be a blow out. It was the third-fastest three goals scored in Devils history.

But the blowout wouldn't hold as two late second-period goals from Vancouver cut the lead to 4-3 heading into the third period. At 6:02 of the third, Phillip DiGiuseppe scored his first NHL goal in two years to tie it at 4-4.

"This wasn't our A Game. We've played a lot better," Bratt said. "We were coming off that break like this, it can be rusty sometimes. At the same time we showed great character and came back. We found a way to win. Those two points at the end of the stretch is going to be huge for us. For us to battle it out and find a way to win was huge."

- Jack Hughes continues to be, well, Jack Hughes. He picked up his 34th and 35th goals of the season. The first came with 2:12 remaining in the first period. Hughes was able to pick up a stretch pass from Dougie Hamilton and move in on goal with a partial breakaway. A quick wrist fake pulled Canucks goaltender Collin Delia to his knees in the butterfly. At that point, Hughes had him. The 21-year-old All-Star pulled the puck across the crease to his backhand and beyond the outstretched arm of Delia to push the puck across the goal line. On the second, Fabian Zetterlund made a great cross ice pass for a Hughes' layup.

"I was looking at a few different spots, but he dropped early so I could reach around him and make that happen," Hughes said. "The first one was nice and the second was a really nice play by 'Z.' I'll take the empty-netters too."

- Hughes recorded a new career-high nine-game scoring streak (9g-8a-17pts). He also now has 17 goals in his past 15 games, and 28 goals in his last 30 contests. He's been a consistent scoring threat all season, and picked up with that goal scoring prowess right where he left off from the trip to Florida for the All-Star weekend festivities.

The Prudential Center crowd responded with a few chants of "MVP!!" with each goal and goal announcement.

- Palat picked up two goals in the game, his second two-goal game of the season, 28 seconds apart (the third fastest two goals by a player in Devils history). The first was a nice tip on a point shot by Hamilton in the circle. Palat's second goal was a beautiful snipe from the high slot. - Zetterlund was moved onto the wing with Hughes to help ignite his offensive game. It certainly showed up against Vancouver where the Swede picked up two assists. The most impressive was stealing a puck in the second period and feeding Hughes with a cross-ice pass for a tap-in. - Devils defenseman John Marino returned to the lineup for the first time since missing 17 games due to an upper-body injury (Dec. 20). Marino wasted little time, jumping up on the rush and even pinching in a few times below the goal line to try and create offense. Marino was paired with Brendan Smith on the third duo to help ease his return and transition.