Dawson Mercer remained red-hot Thursday night, scoring a tying goal early in the third period before collecting his first overtime goal to lift the host New Jersey Devils to a 4-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings in Newark, N.J.
Nico Hischier drew the Devils even again to force overtime by redirecting a shot by Jack Hughes with 38.6 seconds left in regulation before the Devils dominated the extra session. Hughes almost scored twice in the opening seconds of overtime before Mercer, who had just leaped onto the ice, grabbed the puck at the edge of the Kings’ zone and passed to Dougie Hamilton.
Mercer then dashed past Drew Doughty and into the crease, where he took a pass from Hamilton and chipped the puck past Pheonix Copley for his seventh goal in the last five games.
Tomas Tatar scored in the second period for the Devils, who have won three of four. Goalie Vitek Vanecek made 19 saves.
Anze Kopitar, Viktor Arvidsson and Sean Durzi scored for the Kings, who have lost the first two games of a five-game road trip. Copley made 28 saves.
The Kings took the lead by scoring on two odd-man rushes in a span of a little more than four minutes in the first period.
Durzi’s pass through the neutral zones hit Kopitar in stride before the center, streaking in alone, shuffled the puck and beat Vanecek beneath his legs at 7:24.
Arvidsson and Kevin Fiala raced down the ice on a two-on-one before Vanecek deflected Fiala’s shot. But the rebound bounced to Arvidsson, who buried his shot into the wide-open left corner with 8:25 left.
The Devils took advantage of a Kings turnover to begin their comeback attempt. Mercer stole the puck from Sean Walker behind the Kings’ net and fed Tatar, who beat Copley with a backhand from the edge of the crease with 3:16 left in the second.
Tatar and Mercer teamed up to tie the score 2:23 into the third. Kevin Bahl’s pass from the blue line bounced off the back boards and Tatar beat Tobias Bjornfot to the puck before dishing to Mercer, who wound up and fired a slap shot past Copley.
Kopitar passed from the right faceoff circle across to a wide-open Durzi, who put the Kings ahead with 4:19 left in the third.
–Field Level Media
