ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Nico Hischier scored three goals for his second hat trick of the season and the New Jersey Devils beat the Minnesota Wild 5-2 on Saturday.

Paul Cotter and Tomas Tatar also scored, Jesper Bratt had two assists, and Jacob Markstrom stopped 22 shots for the Devils. New Jersey won for the second time in six games (2-3-1).

Marcus Foligno and Ryan Hartman scored and Filip Gustavsson made 28 saves for the Wild, who have lost three of four.

Minnesota is tied with St. Louis for the top wild card in the Western Conference, with the teams six points ahead of Vancouver. The Blues beat Colorado 2-1 Saturday for their ninth straight win.

After New Jersey was blanked 4-0 Friday in Winnipeg, Hischier scored 29 seconds into the game and Cotter scored before six minutes elapsed for a 2-0 lead.

Hischier made it 3-1 early in the third, but Hartman answered two minutes later for the Wild. Hischier completed his first three-goal game since Nov. 25 with a power-play goal with 5:10 remaining. Hischier has a career-high 33 goals this season.

Foligno also had an assist on Hartman’s goal in the third period, and a major for fighting the Devils’ Jonathan Kovacevic for a Gordie Howe hat trick.

Takeaways

Devils: Hischier, whose first goal was the fastest to start the game for New Jersey this season, has points in 10 of his last 11 games with seven goals and six assists.

Wild: Minnesota finished 5-5-1 in a stretch it played 10 of 11 games at home. Five of the last eight games are on the road, where the Wild are second in the NHL with 47 points (22-11-3).

Key moment

New Jersey just missed making it 3-1 with 15 seconds left in the second period. On a 3-on-1 Bratt’s shot looked to be going in, but it went off the skate of teammate Timo Meier who was crossing at the edge of the crease and the puck deflected wide.

Key stat

Per NHL Stats, Bratt’s two assists give him 15 this month, the most in a month by a Devils player since Scott Gomez had 16 in March 2004. Bratt has a career-high 66 assists this season.

Up next

Wild visit New Jersey on Monday to complete the home-and-home set.

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