Devils look to keep rolling entering match vs. Flyers

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The New Jersey Devils will look for their third consecutive victory when they battle the host Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.

The Devils struck for three unanswered goals in the third period, capped by the game winner from Curtis Lazar with 23 seconds remaining for a stirring 5-4 victory over the New York Islanders on Tuesday.

Lazar's clutch goal was just his fourth of the season.

"My game doesn't really change," Lazar said. "I'm not even trying to score. I'm just playing those hard minutes, but it is pretty cool to see that success. ..."

"They're not always the prettiest thing but when I get a chance and able to capitalize on it, it's good. It's been a long road, but I love the spot I'm in, my role, and I couldn't be happier here."

Lazar also had an assist while Jack Hughes scored one goal and contributed two assists. Dawson Mercer and Michael McLeod also had one goal and one assist apiece.

Goaltender Vitek Vanecek allowed four goals and was replaced by Akira Schmid at 13:05 of the second period.

The come-from-behind win was hardly flawless.

"It's unfortunate, but I think that's been how the season has been going," Hughes said. "We haven't really been playing well in front of our goalie. He yanked (Vanecek) and 'Schmido' comes in and we get the win, but that's not the full story.

"We obviously didn't play that well in front of 'V', so we want to put up a better foot forward for him next time."

Devils defenseman Dougie Hamilton suffered an upper-body injury in the second period and didn't play in the third. He is questionable for Thursday's game.

The Flyers will aim to rebound after a disappointing 4-1 home loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.

Travis Konecny scored the only goal for the Flyers, who entered the game having won six of eight.

Goaltender Carter Hart was a bright spot with 32 saves.

"We were just flat right through the lineup," Flyers head coach John Tortorella said. "Back end did some good work, but just didn't have many forwards going at all."

Konecny tied the game at 1 at 7:14 of the second period.

Carolina controlled the tempo the rest of the way. It also received some fortuitous bounces as Brendan Lemieux's go-ahead goal occurred after Scott Laughton's clearing attempt. The puck caromed off Lemieux's leg and into the crease.

"I try to clear it off the wall, hits off a shin pad, goes right on his stick," Laughton said. "Not sure how many times that's going to happen again."

The Flyers played without forward Noah Cates, who's expected to be out six to eight weeks because of a broken foot suffered against the Islanders on Saturday.

"The frustrating thing for me with Catesy was, we put him on wing, we leaned into him a little bit about trying to create some offense and I thought he probably had his best offensive game," Tortorella said.

"Breaks his foot at the beginning of the second period, plays through it. A little frustrating we couldn't see him more after playing a pretty good offensive game, but it's gonna give people opportunities."

- Field Level Media