Arseny Gritsyuk scored for the fifth straight game to help the New Jersey Devils seal a 3-1 win against Los Angeles Kings on Saturday afternoon in Newark, N.J.
Anthony Mantha and Brett Pesce also scored, and Jake Allen made 12 saves for New Jersey, which has won five of the past six.
Scott Laughton scored and Anton Forsberg made 23 saves for the Kings, who had won two in a row following a 0-4-2 start to the season.
Pesce gave the Devils a 2-1 lead at 8:08 of the third period.
The veteran defenseman had the time and space to hold the puck and wait for Kings forward Andre Lee to slide by before scoring with a wrist shot from above the right hash marks.
The Kings briefly thought they tied it with 4:36 left on a deflection by Trevor Moore, but it was quickly ruled on the ice that he had used a high stick and confirmed on review.
Gritsyuk scored into an empty net with 1:05 left for a 3-1 lead.
Forsberg helped keep the game scoreless by making back-to-back pad saves without his goal stick at 12:03 and 12:12 of the second period.
Shortly afterward, the Devils were on a power play when Kings forward Joel Armia stuck out his stick blade and prevented the puck from sliding over the goal line after it got behind Forsberg.
Laughton came out of the box on the same penalty and stayed on the ice before receiving an Adrian Kempe pass from below the goal line and scoring via a one-timer for a 1-0 lead at 15:57 of the second.
Mantha tied it 1-1 at 18:43 of the second.
Jesper Boqvist circled behind the Los Angeles net before passing the puck out to Mantha at the top of the left circle. He stopped the puck with his skate, skated into the circle and avoided two defenders before snapping a shot past Forsberg.
The Kings were outshot 14-3 in the second period after both teams combined for just nine shots in the first period.
–Field Level Media
