New Jersey Devils at Florida Panthers

· National Hockey League

New Jersey Devils

12-6-2

Final
6 - 2

Florida Panthers

11-5-1

Devils get 3 power play scores, top Panthers 6-2 to finish sweep of Cup champs

Jesper Bratt's hat trick helps tame the Panthers

Jack Hughes had a goal and two assists for the Devils, who also won 4-1 in Florida on Tuesday. Jake Allen stopped 25 shots for New Jersey, which got three power-play scores — along with a short-handed empty-netter with 5:12 left, Bratt's third of the night — and is now 7-2-0 in its last nine games.

Sam Reinhart — the first player with 13 goals this season — and Jesper Boqvist scored for Florida, which hadn't dropped two straight since Oct. 10 and 12. Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves.

Takeaways Devils: New Jersey became the first team this season to get two goals in the final 12 seconds of periods. Both were power-play tallies; Bratt scored with two seconds left in the first, Noesen with 11 seconds left in the second.

Panthers: Sam Bennett back Thursday after he missed Tuesday's game with a minor upper-body issue. Bennett had an assist on Boqvist's goal.

Key moment The Panthers, down 4-2, opened the third period on a power play but it was wiped out 22 seconds later when Carter Verhaeghe was called for tripping — one of many calls that Florida wasn't thrilled about during the evening.

Key stat The Devils already have two games with three power-play goals this season. They had five in the last six regular seasons combined.

Up next The Devils visit Tampa Bay on Saturday and will try to go 3-0-0 in Florida this season; they haven't had a perfect record in the Sunshine State (excluding COVID-affected seasons) since going 4-0-0 at Florida and Tampa Bay in 2000-01.

The Panthers host NHL-leading Winnipeg on Saturday.

Regular Season Series

NJ leads series 2-0

Scoring Summary

Goal	1st Period 10:01	Stefan Noesen Goal (8) Backhand, assists: Luke Hughes (2), Nico Hischier (8)
Goal	1st Period 12:13	Jesper Boqvist Goal (3) Wrist Shot, assists: Matthew Tkachuk (7), Sam Bennett (7)
Goal	1st Period 19:58	Jesper Bratt Goal (6) Snap Shot, assists: Dougie Hamilton (14), Jack Hughes (12)
Goal	2nd Period 4:45	Sam Reinhart Goal (13) Snap Shot, assists: Aleksander Barkov (12)
Goal	2nd Period 5:56	Dawson Mercer Goal (5) Deflected, assists: Jack Hughes (13), Nico Hischier (9)
Goal	2nd Period 19:49	Stefan Noesen Goal (9) Snap Shot, assists: Nico Hischier (10), Jack Hughes (14)
Goal	3rd Period 3:50	Jesper Bratt Goal (7) Wrist Shot, assists: none
Goal	3rd Period 14:48	Jesper Bratt Goal (8) Wrist Shot, assists: none

Statistics

NJ		FLA
13	Blocked Shots	10
29	Hits	45
4	Takeaways	8
29	Shots	27
3	Power Play Goals	0
5	Power Play Opportunities	5
60.0	Power Play Percentage	0.0
1	Short Handed Goals	0
0	Shootout Goals	0
33	Faceoffs Won	21
61.1	Faceoff Win Percent	38.9
16	Giveaways	15
7	Total Penalties	7
17	Penalty Minutes	17

Florida Panthers Injuries

NAME, POS	STATUS	DATE
Evan Rodrigues, C	Day-To-Day	Mar 26
Sam Reinhart, C	Out	Mar 26
Mackie Samoskevich, RW	Out	Mar 26
Cole Schwindt, RW	Injured Reserve	Mar 26
Anton Lundell, C	Out	Mar 25