NEWARK, N.J. _ The Devils are not scoring much. And, yes, it was getting frustrating.
So here were the Devils, locked in another low-scoring game, trailing in the third period, getting their chances on Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk but being shut out.
"Absolutely, it's very frustrating," Taylor Hall said. "And it makes you almost second guess yourself. (Coach John) Hynes said to focus on the process, not the end result. You can't just say you want to go out and score goals. You've got to focus on the process."
Well, the process worked.
Hall scored 29 seconds into overtime and the Devils opened a four-game homestand with a 2-1 win over the Wild on Saturday night before an announced sell-out crowd of 16,514, which included Martin Brodeur, whose statue outside the arena was unveiled before the game.
The Devils (2-2-1), who scored an NHL-low 184 goals last season as they missed the playoffs for the fourth straight time, have played five straight one-goal games and have just eight goals this season, three by Hall.
"We stuck with it," said goalie Cory Schneider, who made 28 saves and was, again, the Devils' best player. "We didn't get down on ourselves being down 1-0 in the third. It feels good but we can't get on a cycle here of win one, lose one, win one, lose one. We've got to try and get a couple going, especially here at home."
Schneider pushed the game to overtime with a save on ex-Devil Zach Parise off a three-on-one rush at 18:15 of the third period. Dubnyk made 30 saves for the Wild (3-1-1).
"I thought our group tonight had some mental toughness and resiliency to play the right way and it was good to see us get rewarded for it," Hynes said. "We just felt as a coaching staff, in between periods, maybe there could be a little bit of discouragement or a letdown because they had worked and didn't score. Credit to our players, they did a lot of good things in the third period."
The win came two nights after the Devils blew a one-goal lead in the third period and lost, 2-1, at Boston.
This time, the Devils pressed the attack in the third period and tied the game at 1 at 11:56 as P.A. Parenteau, fed on his rush up the right wing by Mike Cammalleri, beat Dubnyk with a low slap shot.
"We have too many good forwards," said Parenteau, who has two goals in five games with the Devils. "I'm confident. We're going to have a good offense."
Searching for consistency among his forwards, Hynes juggled his lines again.
Rookie Blake Speers, 19, was given an opportunity among the top six. Fellow rookie Pavel Zacha was given a chance to play on a line with Hall.
Yet, the combinations were new again by the second period, with Speers joining Adam Henrique and Beau Bennett and Devante Smith-Pelly, who started the game on the fourth line, completing a top trip with Zacha and Hall.
The Wild took a 1-0 lead at 1:00 of the second period when Joel Eriksson Ek, making his NHL debut, bodied Parenteau off the puck at the blue line and popped in the rebound after Schneider couldn't control Jason Zucker's shot with his glove.
