NEWARK, N.J. _ It took four meetings this season before the Devils fell behind in a game to the Pittsburgh Penguins, but when it finally happened Tuesday night they couldn't recover. New Jersey failed to complete the season sweep of their Metropolitan Division foes, falling, 4-3, to the Penguins at Prudential Center.
Jesper Bratt and Marcus Johansson each had a goal and an assist for the Devils, both coming in the first period when the Devils and Penguins each exchanged two goals. Mirco Mueller assisted on both as well. But the Penguins scored twice in the second period despite a nearly equal amount of attempts and offense generated.
The Devils hit posts and crossbars a handful of times but weren't able to get anything past goalie Matt Murray until 15 minutes into the third period. With five minutes left, Miles Wood scored to give the Devils life.
Blake Coleman took a penalty at 17:09 and the Devils put their goal scorers on the ice, using Johansson and Kyle Palmieri to kill the penalty. But they spent the rest of the game defending and ran out of time.
The game-changing goal came 10:45 into the second period when Bryan Rust buried a feed from Jake Guentzel off the rush. Goalie Keith Kinkaid made the initial stop but the puck trickled past him and crossed the line for a goal to break the 2-2 tie.
Chad Ruhwedel put the Penguins up 4-2 late in the third period, rocketing a point shot off the crossbar.
Nick Bjugstad beat Kinkaid high on the power play with just under two minutes left in the first period to the tie the game at 2.
Johansson scored his 12th of the season at 12:12, going top-shelf with a backhander. This came a few minutes after Sidney Crosby set up Zach Aston-Reese from down low. Aston-Reese cut through the crease to finish off the feed from the captain.
Bratt put the Devils on the board with a shot from the circle at 2:14. The second-year forward has come on strong as of late with 10 points in his last nine games. He nearly tied the game for the Devils in the third but he hit the post.
Kinkaid, who started all four games against the Penguins this season, made 27 saves.
