In his first game since signing his seven-year contract extension, Luke Hughes earned two assists in the New Jersey Devils' 6-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.
"I like the fight of our guys to keep coming back, but we were the second-best team all night long, so the results were appropriate," head coach Sheldon Keefe told NJD.TV. "Lots to work on to keep getting better."
Dougie Hamilton, Jesper Bratt, and Cody Glass scored for New Jersey. Goaltender Jacob Markstrom made 27 saves on 32 shots for a .844 save percentage.
Former Devil Taylor Hall opened the scoring at the 4:06 mark of the first period, deflecting Shayne Gostisbehere's shot from the blue line.
Hamilton's backhand shot beat Frederik Andersen to tie the game at 1-1. Bratt and Jack Hughes were credited with the assists. A mere 68 seconds later, Carolina regained the lead with K'Andre Miller's first as a Hurricane.
The Devils tied the game at 13:54 with Glass scoring his first of the season after he received a pass from Luke Hughes. The young defenseman picked up the lone assist, earning his first point of the night.
New Jersey found themselves in penalty trouble in the third period, and eventually got burned by Miller's second of the game.
Bratt scored a little over a minute later to tie the game at 3-3 at 11:38 with a snap shot off a pass from Brett Pesce, who was skating in his 700th career NHL game. Luke Hughes earned his second point of the night as he was credited with the secondary assist.
"We fight back to get it to 3-3, and we make small mistakes that feed their offense," Bratt said to NJD.TV. "They are a hard team to get back at when you let off the gas a little bit too much. There are things that we as a team need to look at and get better from."
In a span of two minutes, everything unraveled for the Devils as Seth Jarvis scored twice, including one empty net. Eric Robinson scored in the final seconds to secure Carolina's 6-3 victory.
"We are going to have to figure out how to beat them in this rink if we want to do anything good this year," Hamilton told NJD.TV.
The Devils' next game is scheduled for Saturday against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena.
Make sure you bookmark THN's New Jersey Devils site for THN's latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more.
Hischier's Manager Patrick Fischer: 'He's Driven to Succeed, but Not Easily