PITTSBURGH _ To put it bluntly, the Devils just have the Pittsburgh Penguins' number.
Maybe it's the fact that they have the Penguins' former general manager in Ray Shero or their former American League head coach in John Hynes. Whatever it is, the Devils always seem to look like Stanley Cup winners when they play the team that won two of the three most recent Stanley Cup championships.
In three games this season, New Jersey has gone 3-0-0 and outscored Pittsburgh 13-4. The latest effort was a 6-3 win Monday night at PPG Paints Arena, the Devils' first game after the All-Star break.
Travis Zajac had a goal and three assists for New Jersey (26-17-6, 58 points) marking the first four-point performance of the season for the alternate captain. Damon Severson, Brian Boyle, Blake Coleman, Pavel Zacha and Kyle Palmieri, fresh off his first All-Star appearance, also scored while Keith Kinkaid posted a 37-save effort in his third win against the Penguins (19-23-7, 45 points) this season.
There was plenty of good to take from a game like this moving forward. The top-five penalty kill unit was stellar, going 5-for-5 and producing a short-handed goal, they had scoring depth up-and-down the lineup and they had key players doing small things that added up to big goals.
But it's clear the power play is still just as bad as it was before the break.
The Devils had a solid block of extra-man time in the third period after Derick Brassard was tossed for smashing Vatanen's face into the glass. Brassard received a five-minute major for elbowing and Vatanen went back into the locker room with his face bloodied.
Palmieri one-timed one from close range to extend New Jersey's lead to 5-1. The game got out of hand from there with Matt Cullen scoring a short-handed goal and Zacha scoring on that extended power play at 13:37.
Bryan Rust capped a crazy third period with a goal just under the 18-minute mark.
Boyle scored a short-handed goal 3:30 into the second period to put the Devils up 3-0 but Pittsburgh got one back 58 seconds later when a nifty passing sequence had Kinkaid looking out of sorts. Brassard finished it off to make the score 3-1.
Special teams dominated the rest of the second period. The Devils did themselves no favors with two minor penalties they were forced to kill off and they came up empty in two power play opportunities.
But Coleman made it 4-1 at 12:57 in the second period, roofing a one-timer past goalie Matt Murray, giving the Devils a solid cushion to work with in the third period.
The Devils opened the scoring with a goal from Zajac at 13:08 Miles Wood sent Zajac a drop pass to the top of the left circle and he beat Murray with Coleman screening him.
Less than two minutes later, Severson attempted to throw a puck on net to start a play off the rush but it was a laser that went right past Murray to give New Jersey a 2-0 lead.
