Devils hold off Red Wings, push season-opening home point streak to 9

NEWARK, N.J. -- The New Jersey Devils extended their season-opening home point streak to nine games with a 4-3 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Prudential Center on Monday.

The Devils (8-0-1) are one of two teams in the NHL (Colorado Avalanche, 8-0-2) without a regulation loss at home, and their nine-game run from the start of the season is tied for the second-longest in their history. The franchise record is 10 games (8-0-2) from Oct. 8-Dec. 6, 2016.

The win came after a 2-3-0 road trip that ended with three straight losses.

"It's great winning at home," Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom said. "We've played a lot of road games lately and I think this group needed to come home, play in front of the home fans, play at 'The Rock' and kind of settle a little bit and obviously get away with two points."

Nico Hischier, Timo Meier and Connor Brown each had a goal and assist, and Markstrom made 32 saves, including a few highlight-worthy stops in the third period, for the Devils (14-7-1).

"He's the reason why you get the two points," New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said. "We had to scratch and claw for this one, and get some good fortune and great goaltending, but this will serve us going forward."

Alex DeBrincat, James van Riemsdyk and Dylan Larkin scored, and Cam Talbot made 15 saves for the Red Wings (13-9-1), who had won four of six (4-1-1).

"We had a really good chance to win that hockey game," Larkin said. "We pushed and made it 4-3 (in the third period) and pushed hard. We had a lot of looks. We just didn't bury the [tying goal] and get it to overtime. I feel like if we play that period again, we have a better outcome tonight. That was a pretty solid period where we were putting our foot on the gas pedal."

Markstrom stopped J.T. Compher on a breakaway coming out of the penalty box at 3:58 of the first period. Compher had been assessed a minor for boarding Hischier, a hit that temporarily knocked the Devils captain out of the game.

Meier put New Jersey ahead 1-0 at 12:54 by deflecting Stefan Noesen's shot.

DeBrincat tied it 1-1 at 16:33, putting in the rebound of Patrick Kane's shot from the point. Kane carried the puck over the red line and DeBrincat was left open in front of Markstrom.

The Devils then responded with two goals in a 1:06 span to retake the lead.

Hischier put New Jersey ahead 2-1 at 17:58 on a one-timer past Talbot's glove. After Hischier won a face-off in New Jersey's zone, Meier fed Jesper Bratt, whose no-look pass found a hustling Hischier.

Cody Glass pushed it to 3-1 at 19:04 with a deflection of Luke Hughes' shot from the blue line.

"It's going to happen sometimes, but it's how you give them up," Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. "The freebies, they're killers at the end of the night. If a team really earns it and has done what it needs to do, you have to live with that and move on. But, yeah ...."

Van Riemsdyk cut it to 3-2 with a power-play goal at 1:30 of the second period. He maneuvered around Jonas Siegenthaler before putting a backhand past a sprawling Markstrom. It was his 1,100th NHL game.

Brown extended it to 4-2 at 8:38. Dawson Mercer forced a turnover by Travis Hamonic and passed to a wide-open Brown for a tap-in.

Larkin made it 4-3 at 10:12 of the third period with his team-leading 13th goal of the season.

The Devils held on despite being outshot 13-5 in the third, with Markstrom stopping Kane twice and Compher during a six-second sequence before denying Kane again from the point with 13 seconds left.

"It was unbelievable, a ninja back there," Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler said. "We needed saves, he was there."

NOTES: Meier scored his fifth game-opening goal of the season, which tied him with Colorado Avalanche forward Martin Necas for the most in the NHL. … The Devils are 11-1-1 when scoring first and 11-0-0 when leading after the second period. … Glass returned after missing four games with an upper-body injury. … DeBrincat's goal was his seventh in his past seven games.