Devils beat Panthers to snap Florida’s 7-game winning streak

By TIM REYNOLDS
Timo Meier scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period, Jacob Markstrom made 33 saves and the New Jersey Devils snapped Florida’s seven-game winning streak by beating the Panthers 4-1 on Tuesday night.
Jack Hughes scored in the first period for the Devils, Paul Cotter put New Jersey up 3-1 with 15:07 left and Dougie Hamilton and Jesper Bratt each had a pair of assists. Ondrej Palat had an empty-netter to cap the win.
It was career game No. 498 for Markstrom. Only 80 goalies have reached the 500-game mark in NHL history.
Sam Reinhart got his 12th goal for Florida, and Spencer Knight made 20 saves for the Panthers. Florida played without forward Sam Bennett, a late scratch with an undisclosed upper-body issue.
Devils: New Jersey has shown resilience all season and Tuesday was another example. With this win the Devils improved to 5-2-1 this season coming off a loss.
Panthers: The game started a very tough 10-game stretch for Florida — two games against New Jersey, two against NHL-leading Winnipeg, two games with Carolina and single matchups against Chicago, Colorado, Washington and Toronto in that span.
Florida’s Jonah Gadjovich and New Jersey’s Brenden Dillon had a wild fight midway through the second period, 30 seconds of them holding each other’s sweater with their left hands and throwing constant punches with their rights. Gadjovich’s helmet was knocked off and his head was tucked inside his sweater for half of the fight. Dillon ended up going down first.
The Devils improved to 9-0-0 this season when leading after two periods. It’s almost a guaranteed win in the NHL these days when leading after 40 minutes; teams came into Tuesday with a 181-4-15 record this season in that scenario.
The teams meet again Thursday night in Sunrise.