Depleted Devils Stun Panthers to End Streak | GAME STORY

SUNRISE, Fla. - The injury-riddled Devils gutted out one of their most impressive wins of the season on the road against the NHL’s hottest team.

The depleted Devils ended the Florida Panthers’ nine-game winning streak after a posting a 4-1 victory Saturday night at Amerant Bank Arena.

"We came out hard. We played hard. Won a lot of battles, Checked hard," head coach Lindy Ruff said. "The thing I'm most impressed with is the checking mentality. Our 5-on-5 game the last two games has been as good as it's been all year."

New Jersey built a 3-0 lead on goals by Alexander Holtz, Jesper Bratt and Erik Haula. Defenseman John Marino ended it with an empty-netter.

Goaltender Nico Daws stopped 36 of 37 shots, including a massive glove save on Panthers' leading goal-scorer Sam Reinhart with 2:33 left in the game.

"He gave us some big saves," Ruff said. "We're undermanned a little bit. You have to rely on your goaltender for quality saves and he gave us some really quality saves."

The lone Panthers goal came from Reinhart, who posted his 31^st goal of the year on the power play. It was Florida's first loss since Dec. 21 (St. Louis, 4-1).

The Devils improved to 1-0-1, taking three of four points, on their current three-game road trip. New Jersey concludes their trip in Boston Monday afternoon.

Here are some observations from the game:

• Holtz opened the scoring at the 3:50 mark of the first period. On the play, Holtz threw the puck toward the net and a fortuitous bounce off the stick of Florida’s Dmitry Kulikov lifted the shot through a Chris Tierney screen and over the shoulder of goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.

• Bratt became the Devils leading scorer after picking up his 46^th point of the season on his 16^th goal of the year. Bratt took the puck from the corner and drove to the net. The puck was knocked off his stick but Michael McLeod threw the puck toward the net. The puck went off Bratt’s stick in the blue paint and through the legs of Bobrovsky.

• McLeod, who assisted on Bratt’s goal, has points in four of his last five games with three goals, two game-winning goals and five points in that span.

• Sometimes it isn’t the biggest save that decides a game. Sometimes it’s the timeliness of the save that decides the game. The Devils were hemmed in their own zone in the waning seconds of the first period with a 2-0 lead. The puck squirted from below the goal line and across the crease to Oliver Ekman-Larsson. But goaltender Nico Daws made a split blocker save with 3 seconds left to keep it 2-0 at intermission.

Instead of the Panthers scoring a late goal to make it 2-1 and Florida carrying all the momentum into the second period, that save allowed the Devils to build a 3-0 lead on Haula's goal.

"He gave us that save," Ruff said. "I think we bounced back from it but at that moment it was a huge save for us."

• Haula extended the Devils lead to 30 four minutes into the second period. On the play, captain Nico Hischier carried the puck across the blue line and dropped it to Haula above the circle. The pass was bobbled a bit before Haula quickly snapped a shot through Bobrovsky’s five-hole. The bobble may have helped as Bobrovsky may not have anticipated a shot to come from that part of the ice and was late to react.

• The Devils blocked 20 shots in the game. One stung Dawson Mercer and he had to leave for the locker room for the final minutes of the first period.