Bratt has 2 points to lift Devils past Mammoth

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist, and the New Jersey Devils defeated the Utah Mammoth 4-1 at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday.

Dougie Hamilton scored to end his 26-game goal drought, and Jack Hughes and Brett Pesce each had two assists for the Devils (22-17-2), who have won two straight games in regulation for the first time since winning seven in a row without reaching overtime from Oct. 11-24. Jacob Markstrom made 30 saves.

"Thought it was a pretty clean game," New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said. "Not our best game, not a perfect game by any means, but did more than enough to put ourselves in a spot to win. And I thought we managed it well."

Michael Carcone scored, and Karel Vejmelka made 26 saves for the Mammoth (19-20-3), who have lost three of four. They won 7-2 at the New York Islanders on Thursday.

"We don't want any moral victories," Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. "We want to own our results. Obviously, today, it didn't go the way we want. So, it will be important to reflect on it and make sure we arrive with good answers."

Bratt put New Jersey ahead 1-0 at 12:27 of the first period. Pesce missed with a shot, and Bratt collected the puck behind the net before wrapping a backhand around the left post and in off the skate of Utah forward Barrett Hayton.

"We got the type of start we wanted," Bratt said. "Get some good O-zone shifts, get some pucks to the net creating chaos there. And we got some goals out of that. Yeah, we got a good start."

Timo Meier made it 2-0 at 14:18, racing past Sean Durzi to the left face-off circle for a wrist shot that ended a six-game goal drought.

"Clearly just not good enough," Durzi said. "We're going to have to look at this one, break down the video and see what went wrong and come back to you. But we shouldn't be happy about that. I mean, every night in the NHL right now is a battle. Points are as critical as ever. We have to try to get on a run here."

The Devils didn't have a shot on goal on a 5-on-3 that lasted 1:00 starting at 14:09 of the second period, but Nico Hischier scored four seconds into the remaining power play to extend the lead to 3-0 at 15:13, redirecting a shot from Hughes at the back door.

Hamilton pushed it to 4-0 at 16:43, ending a 17-game run without a point on a wrist shot under the crossbar from a sharp angle.

"There's still a lot of confidence in this group," Pesce said. "I've talked about it a lot, but we just play with our structure and play to our structure and play 60 minutes too. I think that's huge. You've kind of seen it in spurts this whole year, but in order to win and be successful in this league, you have to play a full 60."

Carcone cut it to 4-1 at 12:35 of the third period. Hayton sent a pass through the legs of Pesce and Mammoth forward Lawson Crouse to the right circle, where Carcone scored on a wrist shot.

"We had good opportunities, but we could not bury it," Tourigny said. "So, the difference? I think [what] we could have done better, for sure, it's more traffic at the net. We were a little bit light in front of their net. Markstrom played good, but he saw most of the shots."

NOTES: Hamilton scored his 50th goal with New Jersey, tying Joe Cirella for the fifth-most by a defenseman in Devils/Colorado Rockies history behind Scott Niedermayer (112), Scott Stevens (93), Bruce Driver (83) and Damon Severson (58). He has nine points (five goals, four assists) in 37 games this season after having 40 points (nine goals, 31 assists) in 64 games last season. ... The Mammoth have scored fewer than two goals in four of their past eight games (3-5-0). They have a combined 18 goals in the other four. ... New Jersey is 4-0-0 against Utah. The Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings, each 4-0-0, are the only other teams with a perfect record against the Mammoth in a minimum of four games played.