VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — The New Jersey Devils won the battle of the Hughes brothers Tuesday night.
Jesper Bratt scored his second goal of the night with 34 seconds left in the third period as the Devils defeated the Vancouver Canucks 6-5 in a nail-biting NHL game.
Jack Hughes had a goal and two assists, while his younger brother Luke Hughes scored on a power play for the Devils.
Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes had two third-period assists as the Canucks rallied from three goals down to tie the game.
The game was billed as the “Hughes Bowl” as Canuck defenseman Quinn Hughes faced his brothers center Jack Hughes and defenseman Luke Hughes of the Devils.
Erik Haula and Michael McLeod also scored for the Devils.
J.T. Miller had a power-play goal and an assist for the Canucks. Brock Boeser, Nils Hoglander, Sam Lafferty and Dakota Joshua also scored for Vancouver.
Vancouver goaltender Thatcher Demko stopped 26 shots.
New Jersey’s Vitek Vanecek had 28 saves.
Heading into the third period trailing by three goals, the Canucks refused to quit with Quinn Hughes playing a big part in the comeback.
Boeser struck first, taking a Miller pass from along the boards and scoring his NHL leading 18th of the year at 7:02. Lafferty made it 5-4, defecting a Quinn Hughes point shot past Vanecek at 13:58. Hoglander tied the game, taking the rebound of a Quinn Hughes shot and firing it into an open net at 16:34.
Bratt won the game when he put in the rebound of a shot through traffic.
Luke and Jack Hughes combined for the only goal of the second period, which gave the Devils a 5-2 lead.
The Devils led 4-2 after a wild first period that saw the teams combine for three goals in just over six minutes. They then exchanged goals 58 seconds apart as time ticked away.
It was the ninth time in NHL history three brothers played in the same game. The last time was April 13 when Eric and Marc Staal of the Florida Panthers faced Jordan Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes.
UP NEXT
Devils: At Seattle Kraken on Thursday.
Canucks: Host Minnesota Wild on Thursday.
