Bratt has 3 points, Devils defeat Blue Jackets

NEWARK, N.J. -- Jesper Bratt had a goal and two assists for the New Jersey Devils in a 5-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Prudential Center on Tuesday.

Luke Hughes had a goal and an assist, Cody Glass had two assists and Jacob Markstrom made 17 saves for the Devils (35-25-6), who have won consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 22-25. New Jersey won 3-1 at the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday.

"It's a huge win in the standings and just the morale in the locker room," Hughes said. "To beat a team that's buzzing like that ... they've been hot on our tail for a long time now. It's a huge four-point swing and it's nice to stack two games together."

Glass has three points (one goal, two assists) in two games since being acquired by the Devils in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday.

"He's a really smart player, constantly scanning the ice whether on offense and defense," New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said of Glass. "He's made really good simple reads that are pretty universal in our game that he's getting right and it shows. I've been impressed with him and he's fit in pretty well from a personality standpoint too."

Mathieu Olivier scored two goals, and Elvis Merzlikins made 23 saves for Columbus (31-25-8), which has won once in its past four games.

"Obviously, they're known to be a team that capitalizes early in their building and we didn't do a good job tonight of countering that," Olivier said. "I think we were a little too stubborn at times. We had times in the game where we were accomplishing what the game plan was and we didn't stick to it. We were stubborn in making decisions out there and it cost us."

Nico Hischier gave New Jersey a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 6:37 of the first period on a deflection at the left post.

Paul Cotter made it 2-0 when he picked up the puck at his blue line, skated the length of the ice, and scored on a backhand between the pads at 10:49. Cotter was reinserted into the lineup after serving as a healthy scratch on Sunday.

"You never not want to play but you got to be a good teammate, and for us to play as well as we did last game, and [Keefe] still swapped the lineup and put me in [tonight] tells me that he still believes in me so it was just a reset for me," Cotter said.

Bratt scored on a wrist shot from the slot to extend the lead to 3-0 at 18:51.

Olivier pulled Columbus to within 3-1 on a deflection from the slot at 3:30 of the second period.

"Our line (with Olivier and Kent Johnson) has been going pretty good," center Boone Jenner said. "We want to play to our strengths, get it down there and kind of grind them below the goal line, protect pucks and bring it to the goal line that way."

Kirill Marchenko cut it to 3-2 when he scored with his backhand while skating through the slot at 7:16.

Timo Meier extended the Devils' lead to 4-2 at 16:49 on a wrist shot from the right face-off circle.

"We were a little bit too much on our heels in the second, but all four lines were going; everybody chipped in," Meier said. "That's a playoff mentality. That's how we got to approach games. This definitely feels good, but now we got to build on this one."

Luke Hughes scored on a wrist shot from the top of the left face-off circle 26 seconds into the third period to push the lead to 5-2.

Olivier scored on a wrist shot at the left post that deflected off the stick of Bratt at 10:29 for the 5-3 final.

"We're in a playoff race here and we had an opportunity to do some damage in the standings and we didn't," Olivier said. "We'll analyze, shake it off, and get back to it in the next game (against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday)."

NOTES: Olivier has five goals and two assists in his past seven games. ... Hughes (16 goals, 64 assists in 141 games) is the fourth defenseman age 21 or younger in Devils/Colorado Rockies/Kansas City Scouts history with at least 80 career points. He joins Scott Niedermayer (106 points), Barry Beck (102) and Joe Cirella (88).