Jesper Bratt had a goal and 3 assists, Jack Hughes scored 2 as the Devils beat the reeling Rangers 5-1

NEW YORK – Jesper Bratt had a goal and three assists, Jack Hughes scored two goals and Jacob Markstrom made 39 saves as the New Jersey Devils defeated the New York Rangers 5-1 on Monday night.

Dawson Mercer and Dougie Hamilton also scored and Luke Hughes added two assists for the Devils, who won for the fifth time in seven games. New Jersey is nine points ahead of the Rangers, who had the best record in the NHL last season.

Chris Kreider ended Markstrom’s shutout push with a power-play goal with 6 1/2 minutes left in the second period. Igor Shesterkin finished the season with 22 saves but lost his fifth straight start and fell to a league-leading 8-9-1. The Rangers have lost six of their last seven games.

Bratt scored his twelfth goal after just 1:27 minutes with a low shot that missed Shesterkin. Mercer made the final score 2-0 at 7:10 of the first game.

Hamilton scored on the power play at 9:04 of the second, and Jack Hughes made it 4-0 with 7:22 left. at 12:38. Hughes scored his second goal of the night and 11th of the season and scored New Jersey’s second power play goal of the game with 1:04 left in the middle period.

Takeaways

Rangers: They dropped to 6-5-1 in five games at home at Madison Square Garden this season.

Devils: Improved to 17-9-2 after missing the playoffs a year ago.

Key moment

Markstrom made consecutive saves from Adam Fox and Vincent Trocheck during a New York power play early in the second period. With just under five minutes to go in the second round, Markstrom also took a dive on Mika Zibanejad.

Important statistics

Bratt, who assisted on both Hamilton’s goal and Jack Hughes, leads the Devils with 35 points.

Next

The Devils host Seattle and the Rangers host Pittsburgh on Friday.

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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL