NEWARK, N.J. -- After the three-day holiday break, the New Jersey Devils picked up where they left off Wednesday night at the Prudential Center, extending their winning streak to a season-high five games with a 3-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.

Rookie Nico Hischier scored two goals, linemate Taylor Hall had two assists and goaltender Cory Schneider made 31 saves in the latest win for the Devils (22-9-5).

"After a break like that, it's a tough game for both teams to play," said Hall, who has five points in his last three games. "The fact that we were able to get a good start shows we were prepared as a team, checked in mentally. It wasn't a perfect game, but it was nice to get the win."

Justin Abdelkader scored Detroit's only goal and Jimmy Howard made 29 saves as the Red Wings (13-16-7) lost their third straight game. They have just three wins since Nov. 17.

"We can't feel bad for ourselves," Abdelkader said. "We are doing good things, but we have to do them for 60 minutes."

Hischier, the top pick in the 2017 draft, scored twice in the first period, the second two-goal game of his young career, to give the Devils a 2-0 lead.

His first goal of the night was his first in 12 games. It came at 15:16 on a deflection of Steven Santini's shot from the left point. Hischier's second goal, and seventh of the season, was three minutes later, a quick right-wing snap shot after nifty passing by Hall and Jesper Bratt at 18:22.

"To score feels good," Hischier said. "Two points in the end feels even better."

The Devils outshot the Red Wings 13-7 in the first period, not allowing Detroit a shot on goal until nearly 11 minutes elapsed on the game clock.

"I thought we were ready to jump on them, and we took advantage, cashed in," explained Schneider, who picked up his 17th win of the season. "They got going in the second and third, but we bent, didn't break, and did enough to preserve the win."

A parade to the penalty box slowed the Devils' momentum, though they did kill off all five of Detroit's power plays, including two early in the third period. Schneider was New Jersey's best penalty killer, making three huge saves on Gustav Nyquist, Niklas Kronwall and Tomas Tatar while the Devils killed a delay of game penalty in the opening minutes of the third period.

"You don't want to go down short-handed five times, that's a tough thing to do," Hall said. "But our PK has been really solid for a while now and it gives a lot of momentum to our team."

Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill had another way of looking at it.

"Without question, the power play, you have to execute, you have to find a way to score," Blashill said. "We don't score enough even strength, so we have to score on the power play."

Detroit did score an even-strength goal at 8:09 of the second period to cut New Jersey's lead in half, 2-1. Abdelkader scored his sixth goal on a quick release from the right circle that surprised Schneider.

Despite allowing that goal, Schneider made 13 saves in the second period, and followed by stopping all 11 shots he faced in the third period to preserve the one-goal lead until Devils defenseman Sami Vatanen scored an empty-net goal at 19:37 to make it 3-1.

Schneider had Abdelkader staring into the Prudential Center ceiling after robbing him with an outstanding glove save late in the third period, an exclamation mark on a terrific night for the Devils goalie.

Howard had his moments, too, for the Red Wings, including an impressive lunging skate save on a Marcus Johansson wraparound in the first period and a sliding pad save to deny an open Travis Zajac in the second.

However, it was not enough as the Red Wings head in the exact opposite direction of the upstart Devils.

NOTES: The Devils' John Hynes coached his 200th game in the NHL. ... Devils C Pavel Zacha played in his 100th NHL game. ... The Devils scratched RW Drew Stafford, RW Jimmy Hayes, D Ben Lovejoy and D Dalton Prout. ... Red Wings RW Luke Glendening missed his second consecutive game because of an upper body injury. ... Rookie LW Tyler Bertuzzi took Glendening's spot in the RedWings lineup and earned his first career point, assisting on LW Justin Abdelkader's second period goal. ... The Red Wings also scratched D Xavier Ouellet and RW Luke Witkowski.