Palat, Hughes, Bratt lift Devils to 5-4 OT victory

NEWARK, N.J. -- Jesper Bratt scored a power-play goal with 42 seconds remaining in overtime for the New Jersey Devils, who recovered for a 5-4 win against the Vancouver Canucks after blowing a three-goal lead at Prudential Center on Monday.

Bratt controlled a pass from Jack Hughes and scored on a one-timer from the right face-off circle for his first OT goal of the season.
"This wasn't our A-game," Bratt said. "Coming off the [All Star] break, you could be a little rusty. At the same time, we showed great character coming back and found a way to get a win. Those two points, in the end, are going to be huge for us. For us to battle it out and find a way to win was huge."

VAN@NJD: Bratt hammers home OT winner for Devils

Hughes and Ondrej Palat each scored two goals, Dougie Hamilton had three assists and Vitek Vanecek made 26 saves to win his NHL career-high 10th straight game for the Devils (33-13-4), who are 9-1-1 in their past 11.
"I just think we got lucky," New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. "I'm not going to sugarcoat anything. They had two or three opportunities and could have won the game. I feel like we got lucky."
Luke Schenn had a goal and an assist, Conor Garland had two assists and Collin Delia made 29 saves for the Canucks (20-26-4), who played the first of a four-game Eastern Conference road trip. Vancouver has won two of four games since Rick Tocchet replaced Bruce Boudreau as coach Jan. 22.
Each team played its first game since Jan. 27.
"I thought we played a pretty darn good game on the road after the break," Canucks forward J.T. Miller said. "We showed a lot of heart, a lot of pride, character as a team. I think that's a really good hockey team over there, and we easily could have quit at 4-1. We had a lot of different guys step up, so I think we'll take this point any day."
Schenn cut it to 4-2 at 15:29 of the second period, scoring on a shot from the right point before Curtis Lazar made it 4-3 at 19:33 on a quick shot from the slot.
Phillip Di Giuseppe tied it 4-4 at 6:02 of the third period with a wrist shot from the right circle.
"When good teams have a 4-1 lead, that thing's not even close to overtime so, first game out of the break, we just got to clean that up," Hughes said. "We just got to play the full 60 minutes. We've been doing it, but tonight was a little bit of an off night. But we came out with the win."

VAN@NJD: Di Giuseppe rips home tying goal in 3rd

Andrei Kuzmenko gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead at 3:35 of the first period on a snap shot inside the right post.
Hughes tied it 1-1 at 17:48 on his backhand from the slot.
The Devils scored three goals in 50 seconds midway through the second to take a 4-1 lead.
"This is a quick team, so you got to be very hard on your pucks," Tocchet said. "We're a little light with the sticks, and then we're kind of massaging the puck a couple of times. You give these guys time and space, that's what can happen. But for the most part, I thought we held our own."
Palat put New Jersey ahead 2-1 on a deflection at 9:27 of the second before scoring his second goal of the game on a snap shot from the slot 28 seconds later at 9:55. Hughes extended the lead to 4-1 at 10:17 on a shot from the slot.
"The game kind of got away from us a little bit," Hughes said. "In the third, we were on our heels. We had some power plays, and we should capitalize on those. A win is a win, but we all know we got to be a lot better."

NOTES: Canucks forward Anthony Beauvillier had two shots on goal in 17:58 in his Canucks debut. He was acquired in a trade with the New York Islanders on Jan. 30, along with forward prospect
Aatu Raty
and a conditional first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, for center Bo Horvat. ... Hughes had three points to extend his point streak to an NHL career-high nine games (nine goals, nine assists). Hughes also extended his multipoint streak to five games, tying the longest such run in Devils/Colorado Rockies/Kansas City Scouts history (Scott Gomez, five games, 2005-06; Kirk Muller, five, 1987-88). ... Martin Brodeur holds the Devils' franchise record for consecutive wins by a goalie (12 in 1997-98).