NEWARK, N.J. _ The Penguins locked in their first-round playoff opponent on their off day Wednesday.
Thursday night, they got a location, as well.
The Penguins' 7-4 win against the Devils, combined with the Blue Jackets' loss to Winnipeg, secured home-ice advantage for the Penguins in the teams' first-round series, which will begin next week at PPG Paints Arena.
The Penguins did their part against the Devils on Thursday, overcoming a slow first few minutes with some help from their younger players.
Of their six goals, four came from players 25 or younger.
After a sluggish first five minutes, Stefan Noesen put the Devils up 1-0 when his short-angle shot slipped through Matt Murray's pads.
The Penguins seemed to take some time to get in gear, but once they did, the goals didn't seem to stop.
Bryan Rust tied the score at 1, off a feed from Nick Bonino at 14:24 of the first period. Bonino picked up his second assist of the night just a few minutes later, feeding Jake Guentzel at 17:07 of the first period for Guentzel's 15th goal of the season and a 2-1 lead for the Penguins.
The first intermission didn't seem to take much wind out of the offensive sails for either team. The Devils scored just 10 seconds after the opening faceoff on John Moore's 11th goal of the season.
The Penguins' young forwards were at it again later in the second, though, as Josh Archibald and Conor Sheary scored less than a minute apart to give the Penguins a 4-2 lead less than five minutes into the second period.
Sheary's goal featured a series of tic-tac-toe passing between he and linemates Guentzel and Sidney Crosby. Crosby finished things off with a no-look, between-the-legs pass to Sheary to set up the goal.
Taylor Hall brought the Devils back to within a goal at 5:34 of the second, but Patric Hornqvist re-extended the Penguins' lead to 5-3 at 7:45.
The two-goal lead was once again short-lived, though, as Kyle Palmieri scored for the Devils at 18:36 of the second to make it a one-goal game going into the third period.
From there, though, the Penguins pulled away. Matt Cullen added a short-handed goal at 1:56 of the third. At 40 years old, Cullen also significantly raised the average age of Penguins goal-scorers.
Nick Bonino added one more at 16:53 of the third to round out the scoring.
The Penguins have two regular-season games remaining before the Stanley Cup playoffs _ which they will begin against Columbus _ next week. They'll play the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Saturday, before wrapping up the season on the road against the Rangers on Sunday.
