Devils Pick Up Pivotal Win, Take Down Jackets | GAME STORY

NEWARK, NJ - The Devils and Columbus Blue Jackets locked up for the first of two meetings in a week with huge playoff implications for both clubs Tuesday night.

Round 1 went to the Devils in a 5-3 victory at Prudential Center.

Forward Jesper Bratt scored a goal and added two assists for a three-point night. Nico Hischier, Paul Cotter, Timo Meier and Luke Hughes also tallied for New Jersey.

"Today was not just a regular game. It's a team in our division that's playing extremely well and really coming on," Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe said. "It's important to win this game but it's also important to keep stacking them up and winning as many as you can."

Mathieu Olivier scored twice for Columbus while Kirill Marchenko added one.

With the win, the Devils now have a six-point lead (76-70) on Columbus, who is chasing New Jersey, in the Metro Division standings. With the Blue Jackets (64 games played) having played two less games than the Devils (66), it was a pivotal win for the Devils to get some breathing room in the playoff chase.

"It's huge in the standings and the moral in the locker room," Hughes said. "To beat a team that's buzzing like that and have been hot on our tail for a long time now. It was a huge four-point swing."

The Devils and Blue Jackets will meet again next week in Columbus on March 17.

Here are some observations from the game:

• The Devils entered the game saying that this game is, for all intents and purposes, a playoff game. And the Devils acted like it. They came out in the opening 20 minutes with a lot of jump and energy. They corralled that to build a 3-0 lead after the first period.

New Jersey said it was a postseason game, and acted like it.

"Playoff mentality, that's how we have to approach games," Meier siad. "This definitely feels good but now we have to build on this win."

• Things got dicey in the second period. Although the Devils entered the middle frame with a 3-0 lead, the Blue Jackets punched in two goals in the opening seven minutes to make it a 3-2 game. However, late in the period, Meier ripped home his 18^th goal of the season while streaking down the right side and snapping the shot far side off the post and in. It was a huge goal to give the Devils some breathing room in the contest.

"We had an odd-man rush. I tried to make a pass on a 2-on-1 in the first period so I knew I wasn't going to try that again," Meier said. "Shoot the puck. Give the puck a chance. Great net-drive by (Dawson) Mercer. Huge to take the momentum back, especially after they scored two goals."

• The Devils scored the all-important first goal of the game, thanks to their power play, and thanks to their captain.

Bratt had the puck above the circle and tried to feed Hischier, who was down by the goal line. The pass was too far in front of Hischier to collect. Instead, he reached his stick forward for a deflection and sand wedged the puck through the arms of Elvis Merzlikins and into the goal.

The Devils are 8-0-0 in their last eight games when scoring first. Overall on the season, New Jersey is 22-5-3 when tallying the game’s first goal.

• Cotter was a healthy scratch for the Devils in their 3-1 win in Philadelphia. He was inserted back into the lineup against Columbus and was a motivated man. Cotter scored his 14^th goal of the season.

"I needed that (goal)," Cotter said. "That was big. It was nice to have it early."

Things didn’t start well as Cotter was called for a holding penalty halfway through the first period. But as he exited the box, he picked up the puck in the neutral and used his speed to get ahead of Ivan Provorov to get in on goal all alone. As he reached the crease, Cotter started to pull the puck to his backhand and quickly slid it through the legs of Elvis Merzlikins as he started to move to his left.

“On the goal, those were some rested legs between having the last game off and being in the box for a couple minutes,” Keefe said. “He was fresh and fast coming out of there. When he gets in alone like that he’s going to make good on it.

“Huge goal for us. Great for him. I’m sure he was nervous for a couple minutes in the box for him, but what a way to come out.”

Cotter summed up the entire sequence of going from scratch to return to penalty to goal.

"It's similar to a career," Cotter said. "You get called up, sent down, make a team, don't play as much as you want, start playing and you get traded. It's a roller coaster. The career is. It's all about staying positive. There's a plan for me. It was part of the big man's plan. You just have to stay even."

• The Devils divvied up their line combinations heading into the game. One of the changes was moving Jesper Bratt on a line with Erik Haula and Cody Glass. By doing that, the Devils have three lines that are pretty balanced with an offensive threat. And the move paid off late in the first period.

Cody Glass carried the puck over the blue line and threw it toward the net. Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski got a piece of the puck, enough to slow it down to allow Bratt, who was skating behind him, to find it and take an immediate shot into the goal. The 5-hole goal surprised Merzlinkins, who was down on the ice and likely not expecting a shot to come through.

The line generated two goals for the Devils.

• With his three points on the night, Bratt moves into 9^th place all-time in points for the New Jersey Devils with 432. He past Scott Stevens (430) and is closing in on Neal Broten (469).

• Glass picked up two assists in the game. He now has points (1g-2a) in his first two games as a Devil.

• Brian Dumoulin picked up his first point (assist) as a Devil.