Dougie Hamilton and Alexander Holtz each had a goal and an assist, and Vitek Vanecek made 32 saves for New Jersey (24-11-3), which was 1-2-1 in its previous four. Vanecek came within 2:00 of his third shutout of the season.
"[Vanecek] has been outstanding all year," said Devils forward Miles Wood, who had two assists. "He's just been so consistent with his game. It's really unfortunate we let up and they got that goal at the end, because I know he really wanted that shutout."
Lucas Raymond scored, and Ville Husso made 22 saves for Detroit (16-13-7), which had won three of four. The Red Wings have fallen behind 4-0, 5-0, 2-0 and 5-0 in their past four games.
"That's just not sustainable," Detroit captain Dylan Larkin said. "I thought we played well enough at 5-on-5 to win the game, but we lost the special-teams battle and we didn't get anything past Vanecek."
Hamilton gave the Devils a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 9:17 of the second period, taking a pass from Hughes and scoring through traffic.