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Nico Hischier’s natural hat trick in the second period led the New Jersey Devils to a 5-2 win over the Nashville Predators on Monday in Newark, N.J.

It was Hischier’s first hat trick in his eight NHL seasons, as the forward ended his 10-game goal drought in epic fashion. Despite the recent scoring slump, Hischier leads New Jersey with 13 goals this season.

Erik Haula and Justin Dowling also scored for New Jersey, and Johnathan Kovacevic had two assists. Jacob Markstrom stopped 19 of 21 shots for the win. The Devils are on a three-game winning streak, and they are 8-2-0 in their past 10 games.

Filip Forsberg and Zachary L’Heureux scored for the Predators, who are 2-3-2 in their past seven games. Juuse Saros stopped 26 of 30 shots before being replaced by Scott Wedgewood to start the third period. Wedgewood stopped all 15 shots faced in the relief effort.

Lightning 8, Avalanche 2

Anthony Cirelli scored in his sixth straight game and Brandon Hagel had four of his career-high five assists in Tampa Bay’s five-goal first period as the Lightning buried visiting Colorado.

Cirelli set the NHL’s longest goal streak this season with a quick score from the slot with just 14 seconds left in the first period. His ninth tally left him just two games from matching the Tampa Bay record for most consecutive games with a goal. Hagel set a franchise record with four helpers in the first period, then added another in the second.

For Colorado, Ivan Ivan scored twice as the club lost for just the second time in eight games (6-2-0). Goalie Justus Annunen was replaced in the first after allowing three goals and later returned. He surrendered five total on 16 shots. Alexandar Georgiev stopped 14 shots in middle relief.

Blues 5, Rangers 2

Brayden Schenn scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period as visiting St. Blues pulled away for a victory over slumping New York.

The Blues earned the win a day after firing coach Drew Bannister and replacing him with Jim Montgomery. The Boston Bruins fired Montgomery last week, and he signed a five-year deal with St. Louis on Sunday. Schenn scored his fourth goal this season 72 seconds into the final period and Zack Bolduc recorded his first career two-goal game.

Will Cuylle registered his first career two-goal game but the Rangers dropped a third straight game for the first time this season. New York, which played without Chris Kreider (upper-body injury), fell to 7-7-0 since opening the season on a six-game points streak (5-0-1).

Jets 4, Wild 1

Alex Iafallo scored two goals and Winnipeg pulled away for a win over Minnesota in Saint Paul, Minn.

Nino Niederreiter and Adam Lowry also scored for Winnipeg, which maintained the best record in the NHL with its 18th victory in 22 games to start the season. Neal Pionk tallied two assists. Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck made 43 saves to improve to 15-2-0 this season.

Jake Middleton scored the lone goal for Minnesota. Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson turned aside 28 shots but dropped to 9-4-3.

Kraken 3, Ducks 2

Shane Wright returned to the lineup and had a goal and an assist as Seattle defeated host Anaheim in the opener of a home-and-home series between the Pacific Division rivals.

Andre Burakovsky and Brandon Montour also scored and Ryker Evans had two assists for the Kraken, who had lost their previous five road games dating to late October. Goaltender Joey Daccord made 21 saves to post his sixth victory over the past seven starts.

Trevor Zegras and Frank Vatrano tallied for the Ducks, who took their second straight loss (0-1-1). Troy Terry notched two assists, and Lukas Dostal stopped 25 of 28 shots.

Hurricanes 6, Stars 4

Martin Necas scored the go-ahead goal on the power play with 2:07 remaining and Sebastian Aho had a goal and three assists as Carolina scored five times in the third period to rally past Dallas in Raleigh, N.C.

Seth Jarvis had a short-handed goal and two assists, Necas and Shayne Gostisbehere each had a goal and an assist and Brent Burns and Andrei Svechnikov also scored in the Hurricanes’ eighth straight home win. Spencer Martin stopped 15 shots.

Mason Marchment, Tyler Seguin and Miro Heiskanen each had a goal and an assist, Matt Duchene had two assists and Thomas Harley also scored for the Stars, who had a two-game win streak snapped. Jakes Oettinger made 28 saves.

Golden Knights 5, Flyers 4 (SO)

Jack Eichel scored the lone goal in a shootout as Vegas rallied for a victory over host Philadelphia.

Eichel and Ivan Barbashev each had a goal and an assist in regulation for Vegas, which recovered from an early 3-0 deficit to improve to 3-1-0 on its five-game road trip. Pavel Dorofeyev and Tanner Pearson also scored, while Ilya Samsonov made 32 saves before making two stops in the shootout.

Philadelphia concluded its homestand with a 2-2-1 record despite getting a goal and an assist from Morgan Frost and the first NHL goal from Emil Andrae. Sean Couturier and Matvei Michkov also scored for the Flyers, while Ivan Fedotov made 26 saves.

Capitals 4, Panthers 1

Defenseman Jakob Chychrun, back in his home region, scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and added two assists while leading Washington to a win over Florida in Sunrise, Fla.

Washington’s Lars Eller scored two goals, as he and teammate Ivan Miroshnichenko each logged an empty-netter. The Capitals got 20 saves from Logan Thompson, who improved his record to 9-1-1 in his first season with Washington.

The reigning Stanley Cup champion Panthers fell to 1-6-0 in their past seven games. They got a goal from Niko Mikkola and 27 saves from backup goalie Spencer Knight.

Red Wings 4, Islanders 2

Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond scored the tying and game-winning goals less than three minutes apart in the third period for Detroit, which came back to beat New York in Elmont, N.Y.

It was the second third-period comeback win against the Islanders in the past five days for the Red Wings, who won for just the third time in nine games (3-5-1). Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson also scored for Detroit, and Alex Lyon made 27 saves.

Anders Lee and Kyle Palmieri tallied for the Islanders, who have lost four of five (1-3-1) while blowing third-period leads in all four losses. Semyon Varlamov recorded 17 saves.

Senators 4, Flames 3

Drake Batherson and Brady Tkachuk each recorded one goal and one assist and Cole Reinhardt scored his first NHL goal as host Ottawa snapped a five-game skid with a victory over Calgary.

Adam Gaudette also scored in the win, while Ridly Greig and Jake Sanderson each tallied a pair of assists. Senators goaltender Anton Forsberg made 24 saves.

Jonathan Huberdeau, Yegor Sharangovich and Mikael Backlund had goals for the Flames, whose four-game winning streak ended. Dustin Wolf stopped 26 shots.

Sharks 7, Kings 2

Macklin Celebrini and Timothy Liljegren combined to score three goals in the opening 3:43 of the third period and San Jose ended a three-game losing streak with a victory over visiting Los Angeles.

Celebrini, the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft, delivered the second two-goal effort of his 12-game career. He has six goals overall. Celebrini also logged an assist to post his first three-point game. Nico Sturm, Fabian Zetterlund, Alexander Wennberg and Luke Kunin also scored goals while Will Smith and William Eklund each had two assists for San Jose, which scored five times in the third period. Yaroslav Askarov made 22 saves.

Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist, Brandt Clarke scored a goal and Adrian Kempe notched two assists for the Kings. David Rittich made 14 saves as Los Angeles lost for the fourth time in six games.

–Field Level Media