Arseny Gritsyuk kept his scoring streak rolling Thursday night, and the New Jersey Devils kept right on moving.
Gritsyuk scored for the fourth straight game as the Devils beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-1 in Newark, N.J. Jack Hughes added a goal and an assist, Nico Hischier and Anthony Mantha also scored, and Jesper Bratt picked up two assists for New Jersey, which has won four of its last five. Nico Daws stopped 16 shots in his fourth start of the season.
For Anaheim, Tim Washe had the lone goal and Ville Husso made 25 saves. The Ducks have now lost five straight after opening 4-1-0.
The tone was set early. New Jersey got on the board at 4:38 of the first period when Gritsyuk finished off a sustained attack in the Ducks’ zone.
Hughes carried the puck from above the left circle toward the middle before sending it across to Bratt on the right side, and Bratt found Gritsyuk at the crease for a redirection that made it 1-0. It was Gritsyuk’s fifth goal of the season.
The first period delivered another brief flash of drama when Ducks forward Roger McQueen appeared to score his first NHL goal off a pass from Alex Killorn, but the play was wiped out after Killorn was called for tripping Johnathan Kovacevic just after taking the puck away from him.
New Jersey made the Ducks pay on the power play. Bratt fired a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle that Husso stopped with his right pad, but the rebound kicked loose and Hischier was in position to sweep it home. That goal, his fifth of the season, came with 41 seconds left in the opening frame and sent the Devils into the intermission up 2-0 after outshooting Anaheim 11-2.
The second period stayed scoreless, but the Ducks finally got on the board at 8:20 of the third. Jackson LaCombe fired from the left point, and Washe got a tip on it for his third goal of the season, which ranks second on the team.
Anaheim had trimmed the margin, but Mantha answered at 13:27 to push the lead back to two. He shoved a rebound through Husso’s pads, and the puck slowly crossed the line to make it 3-1.
Hughes finished it off with an empty-net goal with seven seconds left, sealing the Devils’ 4-1 win.
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