Nico Hischier’s second career hat trick sparks Devils past Wild

Nico Hischier scored a hat trick to lift the New Jersey Devils to a 5-2 win over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night in Saint Paul, Minn.

Paul Cotter and Tomas Tatar also scored for New Jersey , which bounced back from a shutout loss one night earlier. Jesper Bratt had two assists.

Marcus Foligno had a goal and an assist for Minnesota . Ryan Hartman also scored a goal.

Devils goaltender Jacob Markstrom turned aside 22 of 24 shots to earn the win. Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson allowed five goals on 33 shots.

New Jersey needed only 29 seconds after the opening faceoff to grab a 1-0 lead.

Bratt carried the puck into the offensive zone and fired a wrist shot toward the net. Gustavsson stopped Bratt’s shot but the rebound bounced directly to Hischier, who capitalized quickly by punching the puck into the open net.

New Jersey increased its lead to 2-0 with 14:14 remaining in the first period. Cotter scored on a sharp-angled shot from the bottom of the right circle.

The Wild cut the deficit to 2-1 with 3:29 to go in the first period. Jared Spurgeon blasted a shot from near the blue line and Foligno redirected it past Markstrom.

Hischier struck again to give the Devils a 3-1 advantage with 16:47 remaining in the third period. He zipped a shot through traffic and into the net.

Minnesota pulled within 3-2 on Hartman’s goal with 14:38 to go in the third period. Markstrom stopped a long shot, but gave up a rebound in the crease. Hartman won the race to the loose puck and knocked it across the goal line.

Hischier completed his hat trick with a power-play goal with 5:10 left in the third period. He banked a shot off Gustavsson’s leg for his second hat trick and his career-high 33rd goal of the season.

Field Level Media

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