Bratt, Palat each scores twice, Devils top Wild to end 4-game skid

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Jesper Bratt and Ondrej Palat each scored twice, and the New Jersey Devils ended a four-game losing streak with a 5-2 win against the Minnesota Wild at Grand Casino Arena on Monday.

“It’s huge,” Palat said. “We had tough times in the last couple of weeks, and sometimes we get out of it easily, sometimes not. And that’s what this league is all about. It’s not an easy league to win. We just need to keep building.”

Dawson Mercer had a goal and an assist, and Nico Hischier and Dougie Hamilton each had two assists for the Devils (23-21-2) who were coming off a 4-3 loss at the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday. Jacob Markstrom made 20 saves.

“It took a lot of effort, took a lot of determination, a lot of will from the guys here today,” New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said. “That’s not easy to tap into, but that’s what’s required. And I think today serves as a great example of how we just kind of kept getting better through the game. And, you know, you get rewarded with some offense out of it at the same time. So, it’s a great night for us.”

Ryan Hartman and Marcus Foligno scored, and Jesper Wallstedt made 24 saves for the Wild (26-12-9), who have lost two in a row and four of their past five (1-2-2).

“I just think we had some looks,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “We just weren’t as sharp as we needed to be tonight, whether it was the first period or through the game. We did [have] some real quality looks, but I think overall it wasn’t, we just weren’t as sharp as we needed to be.”

Mercer gave the Devils a 1-0 lead at 10:07 of the first period with a snap shot from the low slot after Hischier worked the puck off the wall behind the net.

Hartman tied it 1-1 at 13:41 of the second period, deflecting in Brock Faber's slap shot from the point.

Palat put New Jersey ahead 2-1 with eight seconds left in the second, poking a loose puck past Wallstedt.

It was Palat’s first goal since Dec. 1 (20 games).

“I mean, [bad], [bad] season for me, offensively struggling to score goals,” Palat said. “So, this one is nice to get on board, help the team finally a little bit.”

Bratt tapped in a backdoor feed from Hamilton past a sprawling Wallstedt to increase the lead to 3-1 at 7:28 of the third period. He then made it 4-1 just 21 seconds later at 7:49, redirecting Hamilton's shot from the right point.

“We’ve been working hard at it,” Bratt said. “We haven’t been a group that was just hoping for something to happen. I think we’ve been working on it, and then, all of a sudden, things started falling into place. Now it’s just going to be, for us, to make this two games, three games, four games. Make this kind of the standard of how we want to play, and then we’re going to win more games than lose. So, I think today was a good step in our direction for us to realize that when we’re playing this way, defensively and on our forecheck, we’re getting a lot more looks.”

Palat made it 5-1 at 9:39, one-timing a short pass from Mercer at the edge of the crease.

Foligno cut the deficit to 5-2 on a rebound on the power play at 19:41.

“Today it feels weird. You get slapped 5-2, but I think it’s been good,” Foligno said. “We’re without [Joel Eriksson Ek], a big piece. [Zach Bogosian], too. I like the way we’ve been playing. ... I feel like we’re in a good spot, but these games tonight, we’ve got to make sure that we get our rest. I don’t know if it’s fatigue, but definitely get our rest and get ready for Winnipeg (on Thursday).”

NOTES: Devils forward Jack Hughes had an assist, giving him 16 points (eight goals, eight assists) in nine games against his brother, Minnesota Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes. The Devils are 8-1-0 in those games. … Bratt’s two goals in 21 seconds were the second-fastest two goals by one player in franchise history, behind Hischier (10 seconds on Oct. 19, 2024).