Lee Stempniak scores twice, including shootout winner, as Devils edge Senators

OTTAWA - Lee Stempniak scored twice, including the shootout winner, as the New Jersey Devils defeated the Ottawa Senators 5-4 Thursday night.

Travis Zajac, Jordin Tootoo and Adam Henrique supplied the rest of the offence for the Devils (3-3-1). Cory Schneider made 35 saves for the win in net.

Chris Neil, playing his 900th career game, Mike Hoffman, Zack Smith and Mika Zibanejad had goals for the Senators (3-2-2). Andrew Hammond turned away 28 shots in his season debut.

Trailing 4-2 in the third period, New Jersey scored twice late to tie the game 4-4.

Henrique cut the lead to one as he buried a Mike Cammalleri rebound at 14:10. Stempniak completed the comeback when he beat Hammond with 31.4 seconds remaining in regulation.

New Jersey forward Stephen Gionta took a major penalty and received a game misconduct for spearing Mark Borowiecki late in the second period. Ottawa made the most of the power play in the opening minutes of the third.

Hoffman scored his fourth of the season from the point at 2:24 of the third to give the Senators their first lead of the night. Four minutes later, Neil got his first of the season to make it 4-2 in front of 16,578 spectators at Canadian Tire Centre.

Ottawa had a strong second period, outshooting the Devils 14-9.

The Sens created plenty of traffic in front of Schneider and were rewarded midway through the second when Smith was able to get his stick on a bouncing puck to tie the game 2-2. It was Smith's first goal since Oct. 28, 2014.

Ottawa got into penalty trouble early when they took back-to-back infractions in the opening minutes of the game.

New Jersey made the most of the two-man advantage as Zajac beat Hammond short side. The Senators tied the game less than a minute later as Zibanejad intercepted an Eric Gelinas pass and broke in alone on Schneider to score his first career short-handed goal.

Tootoo regained the lead for the Devils scoring as the power play expired beating Hammond with a one-timer.

Notes: Defenceman Marc Methot remains day-to-day with a concussion, while left-winger Clarke MacArthur missed his third-straight game due to a concussion. New Jersey's Jon Merrill missed the game due to illness, while right-winger Tuomo Ruutu remains sidelined with an undisclosed injury.