In Newark, Jack Hughes scoed midway through extra time on Wednesday night to give the Devils a 2-1 win over the visiting Boston Bruins. 
“Me and ‘Bratter’ play so well together; we read off each other,” Hughes said. “You know, we have not played together much in the last month or two, but when we play together it’s like right back together.
“It’s like peanut butter and jelly. … [I] love playing with him.”
Vitek Vanecek made 23 saves in the win.
New Jersey moved to 15-11-1.
“We obviously knew we were playing a good team,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “Chances were going to be limited. They got the first goal, a play where our coverage wasn’t quite tight enough. … In a 1-0 game, the patience had to be the fact we were going to get some opportunities; it might have to be an ugly goal.
“… It was a still a tight game. It was a hard-fought game by both teams.”
Morgan Geekie was the lone striker for the Bruins, his first period goal at 16:51 gave Boston a 1-0 lead.
“They’re great, they’re super skilled,” Geekie said. “They have a lot of good young fast kids on that team and, you know, I thought we had our chances. They had theirs, and that’s the best part about 3-on-3 — guys are going to get their opportunities. Guys are good in this league. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes and it’s just how it’s going to go.”
Bostont dropped to 18-5-4.
Dawson Mercer tied the game early in the third period, 1-1, to force the extra session. “I never played baseball growing up, but I was a big outdoors person playing a lot of sports,” Mercer said. “I’ll say I’ll keep on trying to swing at them. If it is working, I will try to get as many as I can.”
Jeremy Swayman made 33 saves in the loss.
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