Hamilton KOs Blues in overtime

DEVILS BLUES

Dougie Hamilton scored in overtime and rookie Nico Daws stopped 19 shots as the Devils edged the Blues, 3-2, on Sunday in Newark.

Hamilton scored his ninth goal of the season at the 1:12 of the extra session with a high shot to beat Blues netminder Ville Husso. Pavel Zacha and Jack Hughes assisted on the winning goal.

“I was just trying to see where the puck was going,’’ Hamilton said. ”Pav made a great pass and I just put it in.

The Devils snapped a two-game losing streak while the Blues lost their third straight New York-area game this week, having also fallen to the Rangers and Islanders.

The Devils scored the winning goal after the Blues tied the game by scoring twice early in the third period. The young Devils didn’t flinch and kept pressing the Blues, leading to overtime.

“We just settled back and I believe we went out there after the goal, had a couple strong shifts and we just kept on playing,’’ said Devils forward Dawson Mercer, who scored his team’s second goal. ”I think that really just helped us get through those last 10 minutes and finish it off at the end.”

Both teams failed to capitalize with late third-period power-play chances.

Devils defenseman Ryan Graves was called for tripping at 15:11, before St. Louis defenseman Torey Krug was called for holding at the 18-minute mark, the fifth man advantage for the Devils.

The Devils led, 2-0, on goals by Ty Smith and Mercer heading into the third, but St. Louis tied it when Krug and Jordan Kyrou scored less than four minutes apart early in the period.

“I thought we played, overall, played one of our better games, even though they got a couple in the third I thought we continued to play our game,’’ Devils coach Lindy Ruff said.

Smith opened the scoring for the Devils at 9:47 of the first, rifling the puck past Husso for his second goal of the season. Jesper Bratt and Nico Hischier assisted.

Hischier extended his points streak to four games. The Devils captain has 14 points since Feb. 1.