Defenseman Dougie Hamilton scored twice, extending his points streak to six games, as the New Jersey Devils defeated the visiting Seattle Kraken 3-1 Thursday night in Newark, N.J.
John Marino added an empty-netter with 1:11 remaining and Ondrej Palat had two assists for the Devils, who won their third consecutive game and improved to 10-1-1 in their past 12. Goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood made 33 saves.
Adam Larsson scored as the Kraken suffered their second straight loss on their five-game trip following the All-Star break. Philipp Grubauer stopped 24 of 26 shots.
Hamilton scored the go-ahead goal at 10:00 of the third period on the power play. Jesper Bratt’s shot rang off the crossbar before Palat got the puck in the right-wing corner. He fed the puck back to Hamilton, whose blast from just outside the top of the faceoff circles deflected off the right hip of Seattle’s Brandon Tanev and hit the crossbar just inside the left post before settling in the back of the net.
Hamilton has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) during his scoring streak.
The Kraken opened the scoring at 14:05 of the second period. Alex Wennberg won a faceoff in the offensive zone back to Vince Dunn at the left point. Dunn quickly sent a cross-ice pass to fellow defenseman Larsson, whose wrist shot made it through a screen set by Wennberg and just over Blackwood’s mitt and inside the right post.
The Devils tied the score just 24 seconds later with Seattle’s Will Borgen in the penalty box for cross-checking. The puck went behind the net following a faceoff in the Kraken’s end and Palat outmuscled defenseman Jamie Oleksiak for possession. Palat fed Tomas Tatar on the right wing and he sent a pass to Hamilton in the high slot. His one-timer beat a screened Grubauer and found its way into the top right corner of the net.
Both teams played without their leading scorers. All-Star Jack Hughes missed his first game for the Devils this season with an upper-body injury. The Kraken’s Andre Burakovsky, who lasted just one shift in Tuesday’s 4-0 loss against the host New York Islanders, has a lower-body injury. Both players are considered week-to-week.
–Field Level Media
