Gritsyuk scores again, Devils push past slumping Ducks

NEWARK, N.J. -- Arseny Gritsyuk scored to extend his goal streak to four games for the New Jersey Devils in a 4-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Prudential Center on Thursday.

Jack Hughes had a goal and an assist, Jesper Bratt had two assists and Nico Daws made 16 saves for the Devils (6-4-0), who are 4-1-0 in their past five games.

"Guys are really taking accountability and making sure that we all have each other's backs," Daws said. "If someone messes up, someone is there to clean it up. Just that commitment in the defensive zone is what is driving our game right now."

The 17 shots allowed were the fewest in one game by the Devils this season.

"When teams pre-scout us, they're seeing a lot of skill guys who want to play on the outside, and when you keep us to the outside, it helps their defense a lot," Bratt said. "So for us to find a new dimension in our game throughout all the lines ... it's not just one or two lines. It's all four lines with the defensemen being able to sift more pucks, get more pucks to the backside, and then being there where things are happening."

Tim Washe scored, and Ville Husso made 25 saves for the Ducks (4-6-0), who lost their fifth straight. Anaheim concludes a four-game road trip at the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.

"We've been behind early in games and we're trying to chase it to get back," Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville said. "Early (in the losing streak) there were a couple games we should have got points. We haven't been very good on this trip. At the same time, we got to be better than we are. 

"We're a little bit ... I'm going to say out of sorts. But it still felt that we had way more battle tonight than we had in the last couple of games."

Gritsyuk opened the scoring on a tip-in to make it 1-0 at 4:38 of the first period. Jack Hughes passed to Bratt at the right circle, who found Gritsyuk in front to finish the tic-tac-toe play by tucking the puck past the right skate of Husso.

Gritsyuk, who signed a three-year, $9.75 million contract extension ($3.25 million annual average value) on July 3 with the Devils that begins next season, has five goals working on a line with Jack Hughes and Bratt.

"It feels great," Gritsyuk said. "I play with great guys and I need to do my job. It happened again and I hope (the goals) will happen more."

Nico Hischier pushed it to 2-0 at 19:19 on the power play. Camped out in front of the crease, Hischier tapped in the rebound of Bratt's shot from the right dot.

Daws made eight saves in the second period. His best came at 9:43 when he denied an uncontested Beckett Sennecke on a wrist shot down the slot.

"We have a role to play in front of our goaltenders to make their job easier and I think we've held fort there for sure recently," New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said.

Washe pulled the Ducks within 2-1 at 8:20 of the third period, scoring on a deflection from the slot. Defenseman Jackson LaCombe earned the primary assist with a slap shot from the left point.

"Losing isn't fun, but I think just our compete," LaCombe said. "It got better throughout the game, but I think we got to start the game kind of moving our feet. As a group, we got to make that decision. So, yeah, that's frustrating."

Anthony Mantha scored on the rebound to make it 3-1 at 13:27. Husso thought he had covered the puck after Brett Pesce's shot from outside the right circle, but Mantha was in front to poke it through.

Jack Hughes scored an empty-net goal at 19:53 for the 4-1 final.

"We're starting the game ready, all the way from the back end," Bratt said. "I think our D-zone and defensive play to stay above guys is paying off offensively right now. We didn't give their young guys a lot of time, kept them to the outside, and I think that's what helped us offensively."

NOTES: Ducks defenseman Pavel Mintyukov has returned to Anaheim and will miss the rest of the team's road trip. He is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. ... Ducks forward Jeff Malott was a late scratch due to an illness. ...  Hischier scored the 55th power-play goal of his career to pass Pat Verbeek for the fourth most in Devils franchise history. ... Jack Hughes has scored at least 10 points in his opening 10 games of a season for the fourth time in his career. He has 11 points (three goals, eight assists).