NEWARK, N.J. — The Ducks’ strong start to the season is starting to feel like a distant memory.
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Arseny Gritsyuk and Nico Hischier scored first-period goals, Nico Daws made 16 saves and the New Jersey Devils beat the Ducks, 4-1, on Thursday night, handing the visitors their fifth consecutive loss.
Anthony Mantha restored a two-goal lead with 6:33 left in the third, and Jack Hughes added an empty-netter with 6.1 seconds remaining as New Jersey (6-4-0) won its second straight and fourth in the past five games.
Gritsyuk and Hischier each scored their fifth goal of the season, with Jesper Bratt assisting on both scores. Hughes assisted on Gritsyuk’s goal.
Tim Washe scored a third-period goal and Ville Husso made 25 saves for the Ducks, who have struggled since their 4-1-0 start.
“We’ve been behind early in games and we’re trying to chase it to get back,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville told NHL.com. “Early (in the losing streak) there were a couple games we should have got points. We haven’t been very good on this trip. At the same time, we got to be better than we are.
“We’re a little bit … I’m going to say out of sorts. But it still felt that we had way more battle tonight than we had in the last couple of games.”
Gritsyuk scored at 4:38 of the first period to cap a long possession in the Ducks’ zone and give New Jersey a 1-0 lead.
Hughes had the puck above the left circle when he skated toward the middle of the ice and delivered a horizontal pass to Bratt in the right circle. Bratt made a touch pass to Gritsyuk in front of the crease and he redirected the puck into the net for his fifth goal of the season.
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Late in the first period, Ducks forward Roger McQueen briefly appeared to score his first NHL goal off a feed from Alex Killorn, but Killorn was called for tripping Johnathan Kovacevic just after stealing the puck from him.
New Jersey scored on the ensuing power play after Bratt took a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle that Husso saved with his right pad, but his momentum took him out of the crease.
The rebound was left behind and Hischier had position on the Ducks’ defenders, allowing him to sweep the puck into the net for his fifth goal of the season, stretching the lead to 2-0 with 41 seconds left in the first period.
The Ducks were outshot 11-2 in the first period.
After a scoreless second period, the Ducks cut the deficit to 2-1 at 8:20 of the third when Jackson LaCombe took a shot from the left point that Washe tipped into the net for his third goal of the season, the second most on the team.
“Losing isn’t fun, but I think just our compete,” LaCombe told NHL.com. “It got better throughout the game, but I think we got to start the game kind of moving our feet. As a group, we got to make that decision. So, yeah, that’s frustrating.”
Mantha re-established the two-goal lead when he pushed a rebound between Husso’s pads and the puck slowly slid across the goal line for a 3-1 lead at 13:27.
Ducks defenseman Pavel Mintyukov has returned home and will miss the rest of the four-game trip, which ends Saturday in Philadelphia. He is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. … Ducks forward Jeff Malott was a late scratch due to an illness.
UP NEXT
The Ducks conclude their four-game trip at Philadelphia on Saturday at 10 a.m. PT.