PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – A mix of the Devils new and old guys took advantage of opportunities for a 3-2 Jersey win and now two straight losses for the Pens.
First overall pick in 2019, 19-year-old Jack Hughes scored his seventh in the first on a nifty shot for the only goal of the period.
Second period it was about the vets, PK Subban, 31, scored his third of the year on the power play with Hughes getting one of the assists. Then 1:37 later, the Devils first round pick in 2004, 35-year-old Travis Zajac buried his third of the year.
A late sub, 28-year-old goalie Scott Wedgewood stopped 40 shots for the Devils.
Most shots on the season
Pens put 42 shots on net, but a question on how good the opportunities were.
"Maybe we need to get to the net a little bit more," said forward Jake Guentzel. "Maybe he saw a little too many those. We'll take the number of shots, but need to make it tougher on him next time."
"I think we need to get in front of him more and get the rebounds," said defenseman Marcus Pettersson. "I think that's where they won the game today. They were harder to play against in front of their net than we were."
"Some of them were quality, that's for sure," said head coach Mike Sullivan. "Obviously when you are trying to manufacture some offense, you have to put some shots on the net. I thought we put a lot of pucks in play tonight. We had a lot of opportunity for those next play chances at the net front or off the rebounds. We didn't finish on as many tonight, hopefully we will going forward."
Guentzel PP
Jake Guentzel got his team leading 12th goal on the power play late in the second period. Guentzel redirected a shot from the top from Kris Letang to give the Pens some life going into the second intermission.
Rust scored late
Final seconds of the game, nevertheless an amazing play by Bryan Rust. The Pens forward grabbed a puck out of the air, immediately threw it behind his back onto the ice and then sniped it home high over Wedgewood's right shoulder for his 10th of the year.
Up Next
A home-and-home with the Devils with a 1p faceoff in New Jersey on Saturday and a 1p faceoff at PPG Paints Arena on Sunday.
"When you have bad games like this," Pettersson said. "You are frustrated with the result it's nice to have a game coming up shortly so you can get revenge on these guys."
