NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Jacob MacDonald and Anthony Duclair each scored twice, and Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 44 shots as the San Jose Sharks beat the New Jersey Devils 6-3 on Friday night for their first road win this season.
Mikael Granlund had a goal and two assists and William Eklund also scored for San Jose, which improved to 6-16-2 overall. The league-worst Sharks came in 0-10-0 away from home with just six goals in those games.
Dawson Mercer, Jack Hughes and Ondrej Palat scored for New Jersey, which had its three-game winning streak snapped. Defenseman Simon Nemec had two assists for the Devils in his NHL debut. Akira Schmid finished with 12 saves.
MacDonald opened the scoring, beating Schmid 2:10 into the contest.
New Jersey tied it on the power play a little more than 11 minutes later when Mercer scored his sixth of the season.
MacDonald the put the Sharks back ahead at 2:51 of the middle period with his second of the night and third of the season. It was the first two-goal game for the 30-year-old MacDonald, who came in with four goals in 109 career games.
Duclair increased San Jose’s lead to 3-1 at 9:47 of the second.
Alexander Holtz had a golden opportunity to pull the Devils back within one, but he hit the post and then missed a wide-open net on the rebound with just over three minutes left in the second period.
Hughes narrowed the deficit to 3-2 with his ninth goal at 2:56 of the third, but Duclair then scored again, his fifth of the season, at 5:07.
Palat made it 4-3 with 7:02 remaining with his third before Granland restored the two-goal lead for the Sharks 40 seconds later with his second.
Eklund scored an empty-net goal for the Sharks in the final minute.
San Jose started the season 0-10-1 before going 5-5-1 in their next 11 games. They scored just three goals in five road losses in November.
Former Shark Timo Meier returned after missing seven games with lower-body injury.
The game marked the return of goalie Mackenzie Blackwood, defenseman Nikita Okhotiuk and forward Fabian Zetterlund to New Jersey. They were all part of last season’s trade that brought Meier to New Jersey. Meier subsequently signed an eight-year contract extension with the Devils.
New Jersey recalled defenseman Simon Nemec from AHL Utica to replace injured defenseman Dougie Hamilton, who is out indefinitely after having surgery Friday for a torn left pectoral muscle sustained in Tuesday’s home win over the Islanders. The 19-year-old Nemec was the second overall pick in the 2022 draft by New Jersey. He had two goals and six assists in 13 games with Utica.
Up Next:
Devils: Visiting Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday to start four-game road trip.
Sharks: Visiting New York Rangers on Sunday to continue a six-game road trip.
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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
