Penguins hold off Devils, extend winning streak to 7

On the surface, a road game against the New Jersey Devils in mid-December is usually a pretty ho-hum affair.

For Mike Sullivan, Sunday’s contest was important.

Because all of them are important to the Pittsburgh Penguins’ coach.

“I always love that question that you guys (media) ask me,” Sullivan said to media in Newark, N.J., on Sunday. “Is this the biggest game of the year? Is this a big game? My response to it is always the same. Yeah, this is the biggest one until the next one. Then that one is the biggest.

“That is the nature of the league today. With the parity in the league, every game is so important. Every point in the standings is so important. We’re certainly not overlooking it.”

The Penguins definitely did not overlook the lowly Devils as they claimed a hard-fought 3-2 victory at Prudential Center. That triumph extended their season-best winning streak to seven games.

Meanwhile, the Devils continue to slump, having lost six consecutive contests.

Despite the contrasting trajectories of each club, the Penguins had a devil of a time emerging with a victory, largely due to their own malfunctions.

“It wasn’t pretty,” Penguins forward Teddy Blueger said. “I don’t think we had our best. We were pretty good at times but it just seemed like there wasn’t a whole lot of rhythm, especially offensively for us. It was just kind of digging in deep and finding a way to get it done.”

Blueger got it done on the penalty kill with a short-handed score 9 minutes, 19 seconds into regulation. Settling a puck at the left point of the offensive zone, Devils forward Jack Hughes attempted an ill-conceived pass to teammate Dougie Hamilton at center point. Blueger read the sequence like a short story and broke up the pass, deflected the puck to the neutral zone then chased it down to create his own breakaway.

Attacking the net, Blueger jammed up goaltender Jon Gillies with a bundle of puck-handling maneuvers before tucking a subtle forehand shot through his five hole. It was Blueger’s seventh goal of the season and the Penguins’ first short-handed score of 2021-22. There were no assists.

It became a 2-0 contest 1:03 into the second period when Penguins forward Danton Heinen scored his ninth goal. Gaining the offensive zone on the left wing, Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson held up on the half wall, allowed teammates to gain position and slipped a seam pass to the right circle for Heinen. Hesitating for a moment, Heinen ripped a far-side wrister past Gillies’ blocker. Pettersson and forward Jason Zucker had assists.

The Devils got on the scoreboard only 77 seconds later. After a neutral zone turnover by Blueger, Devils forward Yegor Sharangovich claimed the puck and drove it into the Penguins’ zone up the right wing. Pulling up on the boards, Sharangovich dished a pass to the right point for Devils defenseman Ty Smith who fired a wrister toward the cage. Positioned low in the right circle, Devils forward Janne Kuokkanen deflected the puck with his stick over goaltender Tristan Jarry’s glove on the near side for his fourth goal. Assists went to Smith and Sharangovich.

A goal by defenseman Mike Matheson at 9:31 of the third period put the Penguins up 3-1. After Penguins defenseman Chad Ruhwedel kept a puck in the offensive zone at the right point, Penguins forward Dominik Simon fed a pass to Matheson at the left point. Surveying the zone for a moment, Matheson whacked a slapper from above the left circle past Gillies’ glove on the far side for his third goal. Assists went to Simon and Ruhwedel.

Penguins forward Sam Lafferty provided a strong screen on the sequence which Matheson lauded.

“It made the goal,” Matheson said. “Without him, there’s not a goalie in the league that doesn’t stop the shot from where I was. He should get the goal for what he did. Not me.”

The Penguins’ penalty kill allowed a goal for the first time in 15 games at 11:12 of the third. From center point of the offensive zone, Hamilton chopped a slapper toward the cage. Positioned in the slot, Devils forward Nathan Bastian deflected the puck past Jarry’s glove for his fourth goal. Hamilton and forward Pavel Zacha tallied assists.

That score halted a streak of 39 consecutive successful short-handed sequences for the Penguins.

Overall, the Penguins were 4 for 5 on the penalty kill on Sunday.

“We didn’t really focus too much on (the penalty-killing streak),” Blueger said. “I don’t think that was ever mentioned too much in the room or any of the (penalty kill) meetings or anything like that. We’ve been good. Tonight, we gave up quite a few chances. … That’s something that we need to improve on for sure.”

Jarry improved his record improved to 15-5-3 by making 17 saves on 19 shots. His last save came at the last second, literally.

Off a stretch pass by Hamilton, Devils forward Andreas Johnsson got loose on a dash through the offensive zone. Splitting the Penguins’ top defensive pair of Brian Dumoulin and Kris Letang, Johnsson lifted a backhander that was denied by Jarry at 19:59 of the final period.

The Penguins were lucky to escape with their seventh consecutive win. They acknowledge they’ll need to be better if they want to extend that streak to eight Tuesday with a home game against the Devils.

“Overall, it seemed like a messy game in a lot of ways,” Matheson said. “We were turning over the puck a lot, a lot of penalties, there wasn’t a whole lot of flow to the game. It just seemed like we couldn’t really get things going in a lot of ways. It was one of those games, it was on the road and not our best effort. But we were still able to get away with a win which is huge.”

Notes: Jarry recorded his first penalty minutes of the season at 7:01 of the second period when he was assessed a double minor for butt ending Devils defenseman Mason Geertsen near the benches during a television stoppage. Geertsen was given a roughing minor as a result of the confrontation.

Jarry and Geertsen were teammates with the Edmonton Oil Kings of the Western Hockey League (WHL) in the early 2010s. … Penguins forward Brian Boyle was scratched for the second consecutive game due to an undisclosed injury. … Penguins defenseman Mark Friedman was a healthy scratch for the 17th consecutive game.