Nico Hischier scored his league-leading 10th goal and had two assists, and Jacob Markstrom posted his 21st career shutout as the visiting New Jersey Devils cruised to a 6-0 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night.

It was the 18th three-point game of Hischier’s career. Dawson Mercer had a short-handed goal and an assist, Jack Hughes added a goal and an assist, and Timo Meier, Ondrej Palat and Tomas Tatar also scored goals for New Jersey, which improved its Metropolitan Division lead to three points over the New York Rangers.

Markstrom stopped 20 shots in the Devils’ second straight win. Arturs Silovs finished with 16 saves for Vancouver, which lost its second game in a row.

New Jersey needed just 53 seconds to take a 1-0 lead as Hischier took a cross-ice pass from Mercer on a 2-on-1 break. Hischier then fired a wrist shot from the left circle into the top near corner for his seventh goal in the last six games.

The Devils, who allowed just one shot on goal while killing off a four-minute double minor by Jesper Bratt for high-sticking Quinn Hughes, increased the lead to 2-0 at the 1:35 mark of the second period on Mercer’s third career short-handed goal, roofing a rebound of a Hischier shot under the crossbar for his third goal.

Meier made it 3-0 less than two minutes later with his fifth goal, snapping a wrist shot from the left circle through the legs of Vancouver defenseman Tyler Myers into the top far corner.

Palat extended the lead to 4-0 near the end of the period when he muscled in a rebound inside the left post. The score was initially missed by officials, and the play continued for about 20 seconds before the Situation Room in Toronto awarded the goal following a replay review.

Hughes made it 5-0 midway through the third period with a power-play goal, tapping in a Stefan Noesen pass five-hole. Tatar ended the scoring with 5:54 remaining when he buried a rebound inside the right post for his second goal.

–Field Level Media