Nico Daws made 29 saves for his first career shutout, while Dougie Hamilton scored in the second period and added an assist as the New Jersey Devils opened a five-game road trip with a 5-0 rout over the Nashville Predators on Sunday night.
Ondrej Palat scored in the first period for his 500th career point as the Devils improved to 8-10-3 in their past 21 games since Dec. 27. Hamilton added the secondary assist on Palat’s goal to register his 500th career point on the same play.
It was the first time two players recorded their 500th career point on the same goal. It also was the second time two players recorded their 500th career point in the same game and the first instance since Chris Drury and Scott Gomez did it for the New York Rangers on Feb. 1, 2008.
Seamus Casey scored 5:14 after Hamilton tallied, Stefan Noesen added a power-play goal in the third and Tomas Tatar scored midway through the third as the Devils scored five goals for the 15th time this season.
Nico Hischier collected three assists in his second game back from injured reserve. Jesper Bratt added two assists for his 10th straight game with an assist, eclipsing the record held by Petr Sykora.
Rookie Fedor Svechkov had a goal disallowed due to an offsides call as the Predators fell to 2-7-0 in their past nine since five straight Jan. 14-23 and were blanked for the eighth time. Backup goalie Justus Annunen allowed five goals on 36 shots.
Palat opened the scoring with 6:15 remaining when he eluded Cole Smith, got a pass from Luke Hughes in the high slot and lifted the puck into the net moments after Annunen made a kick save on Hamilton’s slap shot.
Daws preserved the early lead with a pad save on Steven Stamkos seconds after the ensuing face off and made a right pad save on backhand try by Fillip Forsberg on a partial breakaway with 4:43.
Early in the second, Daws denied Gustav Nyquist on a breakaway and got some help from Timo Meier’s right skate in the crease to prevent him from tapping in the rebound.
Hamilton doubled the lead with 10:46 remaining when he blasted a one-timer into the top right corner of the net from the left circle.
Casey, who appeared in his first game since Oct. 19, netted his fourth goal in nine career games by sending a wrist shot through traffic in the slot into the net.
