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Devils look to finish off sweep of Penguins (Mar 28, 2018)
New Jersey and Pittsburgh have met three times this season and the surprising Devils knocked off the defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins each time.
Thursday night at the Prudential Center, the Devils look to finish a sweep of the four-game season series when they host the Penguins.
"We've played some of the best teams in the league and hung tough with them," said Devils center Blake Coleman, also referring to his club's perfect record against the East-leading Tampa Bay Lightning. "Games against teams like this, good teams are going to have big pushes and it's how you handle those pushes. We've done a good job with that and found different ways to win."
The Devils opened the season series by beating the Penguins at home 3-1 on Feb. 3. Twenty-four days later, they bested their Metropolitan Division rivals 3-2 in Pittsburgh. Then just last week, the Devils skated to a 4-3 win in Pittsburgh on Taylor Hall's overtime goal.
"They're a strong team, they've won back-to-back Stanley Cups, they've got skill on all four lines, and they're hard to play against," Hall said of the Penguins. "You have to learn to hang with them, handle those momentum changes, play when there's a lot of chaos going on and stave off those rough stages in a game. We're still learning all that against a team like them."
Hall, New Jersey's top scorer with a career-high 33 goals and 85 points this season, has five points in the three previous games against the Penguins. He also enters play Thursday on a five-game point-scoring streak following his three-assist effort in Tuesday's 4-3 comeback win over the Carolina Hurricanes.
That victory puts New Jersey on a three-game winning streak. At a time when every point is crucial and the Devils are trying to fend off the Florida Panthers for the final wild-card spot in the East, they are finding ways to consistently win games, with six victories in their last eight contests.
"It's important our kids learn how to play in these kinds of games," said Devils coach John Hynes. "You can't do that in the 20th game or 30th game of the season. These lessons can only be learned now."
Thursday's game is important to the Penguins as well, and that goes beyond trying to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Devils. With five games remaining on their schedule, the Penguins can finish anywhere between second in the division to eighth in the conference. They only hold a four-point lead on the Devils, and New Jersey has a game in hand.
The Penguins come off a 5-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday and are 4-2-2 in their last eight games after reeling off nine wins in the previous 12 games.
"This is an important part of the year, so we have to have more urgency to get those points when we can grab it," Penguins defenseman Kris Letang told the team's web site.
In the three losses to the Devils, Pittsburgh has only six goals. Sidney Crosby has two of those, Evgeni Malkin one. Considering how those two superstars terrorized the rest of the league this season, New Jersey can feel good about how they've held Crosby and Malkin in check -- and even better about how the rest of the team has been shut down.
"We have mental lapses for short periods of time and it's costing us," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan explained following last week's loss to the Devils. "You can't have that at this time of the year."
Matt Murray is expected to start in goal Thursday for the Penguins, while the Devils likely will go with Keith Kinkaid for the eighth time in the past nine games. Kinkaid started all three games against Pittsburgh this season and made 40 saves in the overtime win against the Penguins a week ago.
