NEWARK, N.J. _ It's not a complicated recipe, matching strong goaltending and a solid defensive effort with team speed, just one the Devils haven't put together nearly enough this season.
But, maybe, 2017 will be different than the disappointing first portion of this season.
Cory Schneider, back in net after watching Keith Kinkaid the last two games, was a difference maker. And so was the speed element brought by rookie left wing Miles Wood. It jelled into a 3-0 win over the Bruins on Monday night at Prudential Center.
Schneider made 22 saves for his second shutout of the season for the Devils (15-16-7), who have won two of three and three of their last six, and 23rd of his career.
The Devils also had top-line left wing Taylor Hall back in the lineup after he missed the past two games with a lower-body injury believed to be a swollen right knee. Hall notched his first goal in 10 games with an empty-netter at 18:02 of the third period to put the game out of reach and his playmaking and skating ability set up the Devils' first goal and extended his assist streak to four games.
And it was Wood who helped Schneider and the Devils build a third-period cushion.
Wood, who earlier in the game had his second NHL fight, blazed up the right wing as he led a two-on-one with Sergey Kalinin, who converted Wood's backhanded feed to the crease for a 2-0 lead at 1:4 of the third period.
The Devils, who play at Carolina on Tuesday night, now have a chance to win consecutive games for the first time since Dec. 3-6.
One thing they do need to mix into the elements that worked so well together on Monday is an effective power play. The Devils went 0 for 6 against the Bruins and are now in an 0-for-25 drought.
Tuukka Rask made 23 saves for the Bruins (20-16-4).
The Devils took a 1-0 lead at 4:12 of the first period as P.A. Parenteau knocked in the puck at the left post for his team-leading 11th goal and his fifth in eight games since returning from a two-game timeout as a healthy scratch.
But Hall started the sequence by skating the puck into the zone and then into the slot, where Rask could only wave and manage to knock down his initial shot. Hall, getting the puck back in a very active shift, then hit the near post from a sharp-angle on the left before Parenteau banged in the rebound.
The Devils, though, couldn't add to that lead as their power-play deficiencies again surfaced.
They went 0 for 9 with just seven shots on the power play in Saturday afternoon's 6-2 loss to the visiting Capitals. Against the Bruins, they could not manage a shot in a five-on-three advantage that lasted one minute, nine seconds after Adam McQuaid drew a four-minute double-minor for high sticking Adam Henrique at 9:36 and Colin Miller already in the box for an additional roughing minor after he and Wood fought at 8:45. The Bruins also killed off the final 2:51 of McQuaid's penalty.
The Devils are now 0 for 5 this season with a two-man advantage.
Parenteau nearly gift-wrapped a last-second goal for the Bruins, turning the puck over to Patrice Bergeron deep in the Devils' zone. Schneider made the initial save and barely was able to dive to stop Brad Marchand with his glove with 4.9 seconds left. All but a small portion of the puck crossed the goal line but a video review confirmed the on-ice call of no goal.
Then, just 30 seconds into the second period, Devils defenseman Ben Lovejoy squeezed a shot through Rask but Torey Krug skated through the crease and swept the puck away from the net.
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