Devils 5, Senators 2
NEWARK, N.J. -- The New Jersey Devils scored the game's first three goals and never looked back, cruising to a 5-2 victory against the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night at the Prudential Center.
Goaltender Martin Brodeur made 23 saves for the Devils, who have won consecutive games for the first time since the final weekend of November.
Forwards Jaromir Jagr, Stephen Gionta, Reid Boucher and Damien Brunner and defenseman Eric Gelinas scored for the Devils. Boucher's goal was the first of his NHL career.
Forwards Colin Greening and Milan Michalek had the Senators' goals.
Senators goaltender Robin Lehner allowed four goals on 33 shots.
The Devils wasted little time jumping to a 1-0 lead. Gionta's first of the season came off a 2-on-1 short-handed break. Devils center Adam Henrique fed the puck to Gionta on the right wing for the quick goal that was enabled by Senators defenseman Joe Corvo misplaying the puck at the attacking blue line.
About 10 minutes later, Boucher roofed the rebound of a blast by Gelinas. The puck caromed off the end boards and back in front for Boucher, who drove to the net uncontested to make it 2-0.
Jagr struck quickly to the start second period, beating Lehner with a backhand shot from the top of the crease to make it 3-0 at the 2:08 mark. The short-handed Senators appeared to lose track of Jagr, who made no mistake from the doorstep.
Greening answered with a power-play goal about three minutes later, cutting the deficit to 3-1.
But Brunner pushed the lead back to three goals when he won a puck battle against Senators defenseman and undressed Lehner on a short breakaway to make it 4-1 with 27.2 seconds remaining in the period.
Michalek and Gelinas exchanged goals over a 45-second span midway through the third period.
NOTES: Senators D Marc Methot was eligible to return to the lineup after serving a three-game suspension, but coach Paul MacLean decided to make him a healthy scratch. Methot is second on the team in ice time at 21:28 per game. ... Devils RW Jaromir Jagr is now one goal behind Mark Messier for seventh on the all-time list. Messier had 694 in his career. ... With C Stephen Gionta back from injury and C Andrei Loktionov back in the lineup, Devils coach Peter DeBoer made C Jacob Josefson and LW Tim Sestito healthy scratches.
