PITTSBURGH _ Conventional wisdom says that NHL teams generally struggle in their first game at home after a long road trip.
That makes perfect sense, but there are exceptions.
Witness the Penguins, whose 6-4 victory against New Jersey at PPG Paints Arena Friday night makes them 8-0-1 in their past nine home games when returning from a trip of five or more games.
They also have won five games in a row against the Devils for the first time in franchise history.
The victory pulled them out of a 0-1-1 stretch, raised their record to 44-17-9 and moved them back into second place in the Metropolitan Division, one point behind Washington and one ahead of Columbus.
The Penguins played without center Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Ron Hainsey, both of whom have joined the team's lengthy list of injured players.
However, they got right winger Patric Hornqvist back after he had missed five games because of a concussion.
New Jersey, coming off a 6-2 victory against Philadelphia Thursday night, took a 1-0 lead at 5:35 of the opening period, as Kyle Palmieri took a feed from Taylor Hall and broke down the left wing before cutting toward the net and sliding a shot between goalie Matt Murray's leg and the right post for his fourth goal in the past three games.
Winger Phil Kessel, who shifted from the right side to the left, pulled the Penguins even at 6:37, beating Devils goalie Keith Kinkaid from just above the left hash for his 22nd of the season and first in 14 games.
Hornqvist and Matt Cullen got assists.
Jake Guentzel gave the Penguins a short-lived 2-1 advantage by chipping in a Brian Dumoulin shot from the right side of the crease at 13:30 for his 11th.
The second assist went to Sidney Crosby, moving him into a tie with Jaromir Jagr for second place on the franchise's all-time list with 640.
After Stefan Noesen countered for the Devils just 32 seconds later, Crosby restored the Penguins' advantage during a five-on-three power play with 14.5 seconds to go before intermission.
He scored his 36th of the season from the bottom of the right circle, off assists by Mark Streit and Justin Schultz.
Nick Bonino made it 4-2 at 15:47, throwing a shot past Kinkaid from between the left circle and the crease for his 14th of the season and fifth in the past six games.
Former Penguins winger Beau Bennett cut New Jersey's deficit in half just 51 seconds before the intermission, rapping a rebound past Murray for his fifth in 53 games this season.
Kessel was awarded a penalty shot with 21.5 seconds left in the period, but couldn't beat Kinkaid.
Hall could have _ and probably should have _ gotten a penalty shot as the period was about to expire because Schultz slashed him from behind while Hall was going to the net, but Schultz was assessed only a minor penalty.
Devils coach John Hynes protested that call vigorously, earning New Jersey an unsportsmanlike conduct call.
The Devils pushed for the tying goal early in the third, but Carter Rowney put the Penguins back up by two when he scored his first NHL goal at 5:17, beating Kinkaid from near the bottom of the right circle.
Tom Kuhnhackl and Tom Sestito got assists.
New Jersey didn't wilt, however, and Palmieri got the Devils within a goal during a power play at 16:21, eight seconds after Bonino was sent off for hooking.
Crosby, though, sealed the victory by scoring into an empty net _ tying him with Brad Marchand for the league lead in goals _ with 33.4 seconds to play.
The Penguins are off until Sunday, when they will play Florida at 1:08 p.m. at PPG Paints Arena.
