In Newark, the visiting Vancouver Canucks hit for a four goal middle frame on Saturday night and handed the New Jersey Devils a 6-4 loss.
J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson hit for doubles in the Vancouver win.
Pettersson was reunited with Miller and Brock Boeser for the first time in two seasons.
“It’s been a while,” Miller said. “We get a couple shifts now and then together, but none of the goals were fancy. They were all going to the net, making plays. We had people driving the net to open up plays and you get rewarded sometimes.”
Thatcher Demko made 21 saves in the win.
The Canucks moved to 25-11-3.
After a scoreless opening stanza, he Canucks took a 3-0 lead in the middle frame.
Elias Pettersson scored 41 seconds into the second for a 1-0 lead to the Canucks.
The Canucks added two more, with Miller’s double.
J.T. Miller pushed the advantage to 2-0 at 3:33 off a rebound goal.
New Jersey defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler was injured on the sequence leading to the goal when a slap shot from Miller hit his boot.
“Jonas is not OK,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “Jonas broke his foot with that shot, so he’ll be out.”
Miller’s double extended the advantage to 3-0 4:37.
“Just us playing hockey,” Pettersson said when asked about rediscovered chemistry with Boeser and Miller. “Obviously, we played a ton back in the day, so just trying to work hard, make plays and be reliable for each other.”
New Jersey dropped to 21-15-2.
New Jersey closed the gap to just when they hit for a pair of goals.
Colin Miller, who scored a pair for New Jersey, hit for his first to trim the deficit to 3-1 at 6:43 off a shot from the right side.
Erik Haula reduced the deficit to 3-2 when he potted a marker at 19:37.
New Jersey thought they would head to the third period with a one-goal hole to fill, but Vancouver’s Conor Garland made it a two-goal hole when he scored with 11 seconds left in the middle frame for a 4-2 lead headed to the third.
The Canucks scored early in the third period to take a 5-2 lead. Pettersson hit at 2:35 for what would prove to be the game-winner.
“Our line got it handed to us by their top line,” Haula said. “I don’t know how to explain it better.”
Vancouver needed that one because New Jersey replied with a pair of strikes to close it to 5-4.
“I liked the grind,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “Yeah, we gave up a couple of goals, they got back into it and then we had to kill a huge penalty and we withstood the storm there. So to get the two points after killing that penalty was big.”
Colin Miller scored just past the midway point of the third to make it 5-3, and Nico Hischier hit at 12:54 for a 5-4 count.
Dakota Joshua hit an empty net with 71 seconds left on the game clock for the 6-4 final count.
Nico Daws made 36 saves in the loss.
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