OTTAWA, Ontario _ Taylor Hall scored a goal as he played in his 500th NHL game.
Other than that, not enough went right for the Devils.
The injury-plagued Senators recovered from an early deficit, chased goalie Keith Kinkaid to prompt Eddie Lack's Devils' debut, and went on to a 5-3 win on Tuesday night at Canadian Tire Centre to snap the Devils' three-game winning streak.
The Devils (27-17-8) slipped to third place in the Metropolitan Division with the Penguins beating visiting Vegas, 5-4.
Craig Anderson made 30 saves for the Senators (18-25-9), who entered the game in a 2-7-0 slump and won their first game in regulation since Jan. 10.
Lack stopped 11 of 12 shots he faced and could now get his first start for the Devils on Thursday night against the visiting Flames, who traded him to New Jersey on Dec. 30 for defenseman Dalton Prout.
The Devils dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen by choice for the fourth straight game. The Senators used the unconventional alignment by necessity with forwards Derick Brassard (undisclosed), Nate Thompson (lower body), Bobby Ryan (hand) and Mark Stone (knee) unavailable.
The Senators are notorious for clogging the neutral zone with their 1-3-1 alignment but the Devils moved the puck well enough and generated chances.
Anderson, though, made several key saves, including stoning Travis Zajac at the left post in the third period and the Devils bidding to cut the Senators' lead to one goal.
And the Devils simply did not get enough big saves out of their goalies.
Kinkaid's night ended when a wide-open Colin White, 21, beat him from the right circle at 8:43 of the second period as the Senators took a 4-1 lead. Kinkaid faced 20 shots before being relieved by Lack.
Lack, who missed three weeks with a lower-body injury after the trade, was recalled from Binghamton (AHL) on Sunday.
Hall cut the Senators' lead to 4-2 with a power-play goal at 10:54 of the second period after he drew a cross checking and roughing penalty on Alexandre Burrows, enraged by Hall's check on him along the boards. In the ensuing scrum, Burrows landed on top of Hall and appeared to hit him several times in the helmet with his knee.
Hall, playing in front of numerous friends and family who made the 90-minute drive from his hometown of Kingston, Ontario, now has seven goals and nine assists over his last 11 games, with at least a point in each.
Zack Smith exited the penalty box and was sprung for a breakaway to give the Senators a 5-2 lead with 47.5 seconds left in the second period.
Kyle Palmieri cut the Devils' deficit to 5-3, beating Anderson over his glove to the short side at 5:12 of the third period.
The game started strongly enough for the Devils as they played in the Senators' zone and were quicker to the puck. Even after Zajac, with his third goal in two games, opened the scoring at 1:57 of the first period off Stefan Noesen's assist as Dion Phaneuf turned the puck over, the Devils continued to mount waves of pressure on Anderson.
But the momentum swing as Blake Coleman, turning along the right boards in the Devils' zone, got his hands up high on Erik Karlsson for an ill-advised roughing penalty at 11:55 of the first period. That became a five-on-three as Palmieri was called for high sticking Ryan Dzingel at 13:02.
Mike Hoffman converted on the two-man advantage, beating Kinkaid from the right circle at 13:35. Christopher DiDomenico followed with a second power-play goal, this one five-on-four, at 14:33 as his shot trickled through Kinkaid's pads. Finally, Matt Duchene lifted a short-side shot over Kinkaid's glove to make it 3-1 at 18:58.
