Jack Hughes helps Devils defeat Oilers for 4th straight win

NEWARK, N.J. -- Jack Hughes had two goals and an assist for the New Jersey Devils in a 5-3 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Prudential Center on Saturday.

The victory was the fourth straight for the Devils, marking their longest winning streak since they won five in a row from Jan. 7-16, 2023. They had won three games in a row 13 times since then prior to Saturday.

"You want to be one of those teams that can go on a crazy streak and throughout the regular season," Hughes said. "I think that's something we've been missing in the past. I mean, there's two or three years since we've done that, right? So it's nice that we can build a little streak and hopefully build off it."

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist, Nico Hischier had two assists, and Jake Allen made 27 saves for the Devils (4-1-0). Connor Brown scored in his first game against his former team since he signed a four-year, $12 million contract ($3 million average annual value) with New Jersey on July 1.

"Those are kind of the special moments in your career," Brown said. "Obviously, it's just one of 82 but it kind of felt a little bigger for me playing the old club and being able to pot one in a timely manner like that. It was a fun afternoon."

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored two goals, Connor McDavid had two assists, and Calvin Pickard made 18 saves for the Oilers (2-2-1), who have lost two straight.

"When you're scoring goals and firing on all cylinders, you can afford a mistake here and there," said McDavid, the Edmonton captain. "We can't afford to make mistakes right now with the way we're going offensively. We have to find a way to clean up the mistakes first and then get ourselves going offensively."

Edmonton was playing the third of a five-game road trip. It went 0-for-3 on the power play and is 1-for-12 in the past four games.

Hughes gave the Devils a 1-0 lead at 8:07 of the second period. After taking a pass from Brett Pesce in stride near the Oilers blue line, he skated past three Edmonton players in the high slot before scoring on a wrist inside the far post from the left face-off circle.

"Just a great pass in the neutral zone (by Pesce)," Hughes said. "For him to knock that down and then get it up to me right away, it opened for me to split the middle. So just a really heady play by him."

Bratt pushed it to 2-0 with a power-play goal at 16:02, scoring on a backhand from low in the right circle.

Nugent-Hopkins pulled the Oilers within 2-1 just 2:14 later on a snap shot from below the left circle at 18:16.

"Things are a little stale, a little stagnant," Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. "We have to speed our game up a little more, and the faster you play, the more you're putting them on their heels and that's where you force them to make mistakes."

Brown scored on a short-handed breakaway for a 3-1 lead at 10:37 of the third period, putting a wrist shot over the glove of Pickard.

"I was actually just trying not to laugh against Pickard," Brown said. "We've got a pretty good bond. I was telling the guys, (Oilers forward Leon) Draisaitl used to always tell me to go backhand, forehand on breakaways, so I thought I'd try it there and it worked."

Pesce said, "I'm so happy for him. He lit up, too, like a Christmas tree. It was good."

Hughes made it 4-1 at 12:33 when he skated into the slot and went backhand to forehand following an Edmonton turnover.

"When the schedule comes out, you can see your first bunch of games and it's a pretty good schedule to come out of the gate," Hughes said. "I think we've played five really good teams and this is a good start for our group. Hopefully we can build some confidence getting out of that five-game stretch. It's a great league. We just got to continue to play our game and we should be good."

Nugent-Hopkins cut it to 4-2 at 16:30 with his second of the game. He scored from in front off a McDavid pass with Pickard pulled for an extra attacker.

Dawson Mercer scored an empty-net goal to give New Jersey a 5-2 lead at 18:53.

Curtis Lazar, who signed a one-year, $775,000 contract with the Oilers on July 2 after three seasons with the Devils, scored from the top of the slot at 19:57 for the 5-3 final.

NOTES: McDavid has had at least one point in each of his 17 career games against the Devils dating to Feb. 9, 2016 (31 points; seven goals, 24 assists). ... Hughes had his 37th career three-point game and passed Matthew Tkachuk for sole possession of fifth most by a United States-born skater before age 25. ... Bratt had his 106th multipoint game and passed Petr Sykora for sole possession of seventh place in Devils/Colorado Rockies/Kansas City Scouts history.