4-goal first period gets Devils rolling in rout of Sabres

The New Jersey Devils scored four times in the first period and never looked back in a 7-2 win against the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.

Tyler Toffoli finished with two goals and Alexander Holtz, Nico Hischier, Ondrej Palat and Dawson Mercer each had a goal and an assist for the Devils, who snapped a three-game skid and won for just the second time in their past eight games. Vitek Vanecek made nine saves.

Jeff Skinner and Kyle Okposo scored for the Sabres, who continue to alternate wins and losses. Eric Comrie allowed four goals on 18 shots before he was replaced by Devon Levi (17 saves) to start the second period.

Buffalo defenseman Mattias Samuelsson left the game late in the first period with an upper-body injury.

Holtz got things going at 1:31 of the first period. Erik Haula collected the puck along the boards behind the net and quickly sent it to Holtz uncovered in front for a 1-0 Devils lead.

Toffoli made it 2-0 at 11:09 on a delayed penalty. Brendan Smith got a piece of point shot at the front of the net and the puck deflected to the left of the net, where Toffoli snuck through to backhand it into the open side.

Hischier, in his first game back after missing 11 with an upper-body injury sustained against Buffalo on Oct. 27 after a hit by Connor Clifton, extended it to 3-0 at 15:20. Palat's shot deflected up off Samuelsson and then Comrie before going off Hischier's leg in front into the net.

Palat made it 4-0 at 18:27 when he took a backhand feed from Jesper Bratt and fired a shot from the left hashmark in the slot.

The Devils outshot the Sabres 18-3 in the first period.

Skinner scored on the power play from the slot to get the Sabres on the board at 1:53 of the second period.

But the Devils quickly responded, with Toffoli backhanding in a rebound at the side of the net to make it 5-1 less than a minute later. It was his 11th goal of the season.

Mercer deflected a shot at the front of the net that hit Clifton and redirected past Levi to put New Jersey up 6-1 at 50 seconds into the third period.

Okposo tipped a point shot on the power play to make it 6-2 at 3:55.

Luke Hughes scored from the right face-off dot on the man advantage to make it 7-2 at 5:38.

—Field Level Media