Devils vs. Ducks: Arseny Gritsyuk Stretches His Goal Streak to Four as New Jersey Smothers Anaheim

Three Devils, three touches, and the Anaheim Ducks were already chasing. Jack Hughes fed Jesper Bratt at the right circle, Bratt slid the puck into the crease, and Arseny Gritsyuk tucked it past Ville Husso's right skate at 4:38 of the first period. That was goal No. 5 on the season for Gritsyuk, and the fourth straight game he has found the net.

It set the tone for a tidy, suffocating night in Newark. The New Jersey Devils beat the Ducks 4-1 on Thursday at Prudential Center, holding Anaheim to 16 shots and getting goals from Gritsyuk, Nico Hischier, Anthony Mantha and Hughes. Nico Daws stopped 15 of the 16 shots he saw, and the Ducks walked out with their fifth loss in a row.

Same Play, Different Sticks

New Jersey's second goal rhymed with its first. Alex Killorn went off for tripping Johnathan Kovacevic at 17:44, and with 41 seconds left in the period Hischier, parked at the top of the crease, jabbed home the rebound of a Bratt shot from the right dot. Luke Evangelista had the other assist. Per NHL.com, it was the 55th power-play goal of Hischier's career, moving him past Pat Verbeek into fourth place in Devils franchise history.

The middle 20 minutes belonged to the guy in the New Jersey crease. Anaheim's only power play of the night came when Brett Pesce was sent off for cross-checking A.J. Greer at 3:26, and it produced nothing. Daws made eight saves in the period, the best of them at 9:43, when Beckett Sennecke had the slot all to himself and still could not get a wrist shot past him.

The Ducks finally broke through at 8:20 of the third. Jackson LaCombe let a slap shot go from the left point and Tim Washe tipped it in from the slot for his third goal of the season, with Sam Colangelo picking up the second assist. For a few minutes, 2-1 felt like an actual hockey game.

Then Mantha ended the suspense. Pesce shot from outside the right circle, Husso believed he had the puck covered, and Mantha disagreed, poking it through at 13:27 for a 3-1 lead. Sennecke's high stick on Evangelista at 16:55 burned more clock, and once Anaheim pulled Husso, Hughes put away an unassisted empty-netter at 19:53.

Hughes and Bratt Run the Show

The goal column says Gritsyuk and Hischier, but the engine room was the Hughes and Bratt connection. Hughes finished with a goal and an assist in 18:49 and, according to NHL.com, now has 11 points (three goals, eight assists) through 10 games. It is the fourth time in his career he has opened a season with at least 10 points in his first 10 games.

Bratt had two assists in 15:28 and touched both first-period goals. Gritsyuk has scored all five of his goals while skating with those two, per NHL.com, and he is keeping the explanation simple.

"It feels great," Gritsyuk said. "I play with great guys and I need to do my job."

Bratt offered a sharper scouting report, and it was about his own team. "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," he said. The Devils' answer on Thursday was to stop living on the perimeter: three of their four goals came from right in front of the net.

Hischier also won 12 of his 20 faceoffs. Daws, meanwhile, was quietly excellent, posting a .938 save percentage. "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."

For Anaheim, LaCombe logged a monster 27:53 of ice time and set up the lone goal. Husso made 24 saves on 27 shots for an .889 save percentage and was beaten by two tips and a rebound before the empty-netter.

Turning Point: Mantha Wins the Argument

Washe's goal gave Anaheim life and most of the third period to do something with it. Instead, the Ducks gave one back on a puck their goaltender thought was dead. Mantha's second goal of the season restored the two-goal cushion, and Anaheim never drew another power play.

LaCombe summed it up from the other room. "It got better throughout the game, but I think we got to start the game kind of moving our feet," he said. "As a group, we got to make that decision."

Stats That Matter

• 28-16: New Jersey's edge in shots on goal.
• 3: Goals scored on tip-ins, two by the Devils (Gritsyuk, Hischier) and Washe's for the Ducks.
• 27-12: Anaheim's advantage in hits. Plenty of contact, very little sustained pressure.
• 23: Devils giveaways, against 15 for the Ducks.
• 1-for-2: New Jersey's power play. Anaheim went 0-for-1.

What It Means

The Devils are 6-4-0 with 12 points and have won two straight. After a 2-3-0 start, they are 4-1-0 in their past five games and 5-2-0 at home. Coach Sheldon Keefe pointed straight at the defensive buy-in. "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," he said. The Los Angeles Kings visit Newark on Saturday.

The Ducks opened 4-1-0, have lost five straight since, and sit at 4-6-0 with eight points. Coach Joel Quenneville did not sugarcoat the trip. "We haven't been very good on this trip," he said. "At the same time, we got to be better than we are."

He did find one sliver of encouragement. "But it still felt that we had way more battle tonight than we had in the last couple of games," Quenneville said. The four-game road trip wraps up Saturday in Philadelphia.

The Devils Have Found Their Setlist

Quenneville's own word for his group was blunt: "I'm going to say out of sorts." Five straight losses will do that to a room.

New Jersey looks like the opposite, a band that has finally figured out its setlist. The skill guys still get their solos, but the hits are coming from whoever is willing to plant himself in front of the net and wait for the puck. Four wins in five games, a four-game goal streak for Gritsyuk and a goalie who barely had to work. Not flashy. Just correct, shift after shift.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press and NHL.com; postgame quotes as reported by NHL.com.