Meier breaks tie in 3rd, Devils defeat Utah Hockey Club

SALT LAKE CITY -- The New Jersey Devils scored twice in the third period to defeat the Utah Hockey Club 3-1 at Delta Center on Saturday.

Nico Hischier scored for his 400th career point and Nico Daws made 24 saves for the Devils (33-22-6), who have won three of their last five games.

“Right from the drop of the puck tonight, I thought each line on their first shift, you could tell they were digging in a little extra harder tonight,” said Devils coach Sheldon Keefe. “I thought we had a really good practice yesterday, and the guys recognized that these are two points that we wanted to have, and they went out and played a good, sound game.”

Mikhail Sergachev scored, and Karel Vejmelka made 26 saves for Utah (27-25-9), which had won three in a row.

“It's a really good team on the other side, and they played a really good game,” said Utah coach Andre Tourigny. “They played with a really high pace and credit to them.”

Timo Meier made it 2-1 just 14 seconds into the third period, firing a wrist shot from the top of the left circle that beat Vejmelka on the blocker side.

“If you get chances and you get in that spot, you know it's going to come eventually, so you've just got to keep working,” said Meier, who scored for the first time since Jan. 27. “Today was obviously big that we started the third period like this. We knew what we had to do to win this game.”

Curtis Lazar scored at 12:44, picking up a loose puck and beating Vejmelka on the blocker side to give the Devils a 3-1 lead.

Utah looked to answer quickly with a chance from Logan Cooley, but he was denied by Daws, who is 3-0-0 in three starts this season in New Jersey.

“They scored two big goals. I knew I needed to make a save for them,” said Daws. “They deserved it, and it was a hard shot. My glove almost came off.”

Hischier gave the Devils a 1-0 lead at 9:34 of the first period, as he tapped in a rebound off a shot from Luke Hughes.

“We played well from the get-go, and we knew we were going to just have to win one period and come out with points here,” Hischier said. “I think we just played really well all through the whole lineup.”

Sergachev tied the game 1-1 at 10:03 of the second period, scoring a one-timer off a pass from Liam O'Brien.

“Obviously, they're a great team,” said Sergachev. “They're pretty fast, too. So it was like two fast teams out there. They just scored more than we did.”

NOTES: Jack Hughes had an assist to extend his road point streak to 12 games, the longest in franchise history. … Hischier became the sixth Switzerland-born player to reach 400 NHL points, alongside Roman Josi (724), Nino Niederreiter (472), Kevin Fiala (466), Mark Streit (434) and Meier (420). Hischier (507 games) is the fastest among that group to reach the mark, passing Fiala (543). … Sergachev’s goal was his 11th of the season, a career high for the defenseman.