Devils Dominate Ducks | GAME STORY

NEWARK, NJ - The Devils used a four-goal second period, which featured two from forward Stefan Noesen, to best the Anaheim Ducks, 6-2, Sunday night at Prudential Center.

The win – which snapped New Jersey’s 0-2-2 run – also saw goals by Jack Hughes, Paul Cotter, captain Nico Hischier and Erik Haula.

Anaheim opened the scoring in the game on a goal by Brock McGinn

The Devils responded in the middle period with tallies from Hughes, two by Noesen and another one from Cotter to blow open the contest.

Ryan Strome added a third-period goal for Anaheim, before Haula scored in the final minute to finish the scoring.

Here are some observations from the game:

• It was the Stefan Noesen show. He scored two goals, including one on the power play, to give him five total on the season. On his first, he found a ton of open ice above the circle and snapped a wrister into the goal.

On the man-advantage, Noesen was setup at the net-front on the power play when he received a pass from Jesper Bratt. Noesen was facing away from the goal. He collected the puck, spun around and pulled it back to himself to get a look and produce torque for a shot. From there, Noesen buried his shot.

"Sometimes they don't look that easy. Tonight was kind of buttery," he said. "I spend a lot of time in front of the net trying to tip pucks, working on my game down low. My game is not pretty like some of these other guys. It's pretty nitty gritty.

"Tonight was one that I was able to score."

• The Devils had one of their most dominant periods of the season in the second period. They posted four goals to zero for Anaheim. They outshot the Ducks, 12-3. They out-possessed Anaheim by a wide margin and owned the entire ice. They were rewarded on the scoreboard.

"You could see the shot total. We put a lot of pucks on their net and kept it out of our zone," Dawson Mercer said. "Pretty much when they start to go in and you get the lead, you play with it. We hang onto it with a good third and finish off the game strong."

• Jack Hughes scored one of the prettiest goals you’ll see all season. Not necessarily for the finish, but for the setup. Nico Hischier had the puck at the near mid-wall. He flipped a pass to Dawson Mercer above the near circle. The pass was behind Mercer, who did a spinning backhand swat across the ice to Timo Meier above the far circle. He one-tap dropped the puck to Hughes, whose initial shot was partially blocked. Hughes followed his own rebound to score on a tic-tac-tic-tac-toe play.

• Hischier continued his offensive explosion to start the season. He picked up his NHL-leading ninth goal of the season, and his sixth tally in the past four games. It was a beautiful play where he out-skated defender Tristan Luneau for inside leverage and roofed a shot bardown.

"You love the fact that he's scoring the way that he is and getting rewarded," Keefe said. "For a guy like him that gives so much to the team - hard matchups, faceoffs, penalty killing, leadership aspects of being the captain and the leader, he takes on a lot - you want him to get rewarded. He's feeling it. I've been so impressed with him."

• Today is Dawson Mercer’s 23^rd birthday. He celebrated with two assists and a plus-3.

• The Devils lost forward Curtis Lazar in the second period following a hit by Anaheim captain Radko Gudas. On the play, Lazar was carrying the puck through the high slot when Gudas hit him in the knee with a hip check. Lazar went down immediately and needed help off the ice. Lazar, who has a history of knee problems, couldn’t put weight on his left leg.

• Kurtis MacDermid only played 2:24 minutes of hockey against the New York Islanders. But had an impactful 2:24 with a huge hit and a fight. He once again made his presence felt against the Ducks, dropping the gloves with Ross Johnston. The 6-5, 233-pound MacDermid had a draw against the 6-5, 232-pound Johnston.