NEWARK, N.J. _ The Devils have been completely devoid of any puck luck in recent games, but on a night they celebrated a legend, they got a few good bounces and a few more good shots, persevering for a 4-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night at Prudential Center.
In their first game home following a disastrous seven-game road trip, the Devils overcame a disallowed goal and a goal that maybe should have been disallowed for the Penguins to snap their three-game losing streak. Their last two wins have come against the Penguins, but they've come in different ways, showing some signs of life and finally showing the detail needed in order to close games in the third period.
Taylor Hall had a four-point night with two goals and two assists while Damon Severson and Travis Zajac each had a goal and assist for New Jersey. Keith Kinkaid made 29 saves.
The biggest goal was taken off the board in the second period. Jesper Bratt appeared to make it 3-1 at the 14:20 mark of the same period with a nifty shot past Casey DeSmith on the breakaway, but the play had been whistled dead because of an altercation between Brett Seney and Phil Kessel.
The Penguins' forward had been chirping and hacking at the Devils' undersized scrapper all night and he took offense after being thrown into the boards. With the puck going up the ice to Bratt, Seney shoved Kessel and the two tangled for a few seconds before Kessel took the rookie down. The play was whistled dead and Bratt's goal was disallowed.
It made a difference when Jake Guentzel tied the game in the third period.
But in the end, all it did was deny the Devils of an insurance goal. Hall found a way to win when he stripped a defender, got in tight and went 5-hole on DeSmith for the game-winner at 8:07. He then scored an empty-net goal after a frantic few minutes play where the Penguins had an extra attacker.
With the Devils leading 2-1 just over four minutes into the third, the defense collapsed in front of Kinkaid and Sidney Crosby appeared to take the goalie's leg out from underneath him while Guentzel cleaned up the rebound. Kinkaid was livid, trying to tell the officials he had been run by Crosby. The Devils challenged for goaltender interference but the call stood.
Severson put the Devils ahead 8:06 into the second period for his third point in the last two games. Hall set him up down low and he rocketed a slapshot from the point to put New Jersey up 2-1.
Kessel tied the game at 1 at the 13:57 mark with a power play blast through traffic that somehow made its way through Kinkaid and Ben Lovejoy for a goal.
Zajac scored just 28 seconds into the game for his 12th point of the season.
One night after being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, former Devils' goalie and current executive vice president of business development was honored in a pregame ceremony. Wearing his brand new hall of fame jacket, the Devils played his greatest hits on the video board above and his two former teammates, Zajac and Andy Greene, presented him with a jersey that read
With 4:19 left in the second period and the Devils on the last 36 seconds of a power a 2-on-1 developed for the Penguins. Bryan Rust's shot from the edge of the right circle went off the pad of Kinkaid and bounced off the post. It came to lie just ahead of the goal line until Kinkaid swept it away.
