PITTSBURGH, PA - The Devils were hoping for a response game in Pittsburgh following a 9-0 loss at Long Island Tuesday night. But despite their efforts, the Devils fell, 4-1, to the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday night.

“That’s not the response we wanted but we have to move on,” forward Timo Meier said. “We’ve talked a lot. Now it’s the action that has to take over.”

The Devils had their chances in the first period, but ran into some superb goaltending by Pittsburgh’s Stuart Skinner. The Penguins would build a 3-0 lead after 40 minutes that the Devils couldn’t overcome. A late power-play goal in the second period capped their fate.

“Some of those pucks fall in the first period on some of those chances, we win this hockey game here today,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said.

Luke Hughes scored the lone Devils goal on a power play early in the third period.

The Penguins received goals from Erik Karlsson, Connor Dewar, Evgeni Malkin and Blake Lizotte.

Here are some observations from the game:

• The Devils certainly had their chances in the opening period. Jesper Bratt had a clean breakaway. He deked before trying to go above the blocker on Skinner, but was denied. Connor Brown picked off a puck in the high slot and sent a quick backhander on net on a semi-breakaway. Luke Hughes had a clean look from the near circle that was gloved. And Nico Hischier had a chance from the low near circle on a one-timed snap shot. All of which were denied by Skinner.

Keefe: "The first period I thought we were quite good. We didn’t allow a shot on goal in the last 11 minutes of the first period and we had some point-blank opportunities. Our inability to execute on those chances makes us come out of the period down 1-0."

New Jersey had its chances to build an early lead, but the team's recent lack of finish once again plauged them combined with some good oppositional goaltending.

• The Devils allowed a backbreaker early in the second period. The Devils had a power play that expired. Pittsburgh’s Connor Dewar stepped out of the box and got behind the club’s defensemen in the neutral zone. He received a pass to go in on a breakaway then beat goalie Jake Allen five-hole for a score in a big momentum swing.

Keefe: "I liked how we started the second period. The power play there sucked the life out of us. The power play itself with its inability to come through. But to give up a breakaway coming out of a power play and to make it 2-0, that stung. You could feel that on the bench. The energy got zapped. That's a tough one to overcome."

• The game got away from the Devils late in the second period. The club was already killing a slashing penalty Timo Meier when Brown took a penalty to give the Penguins 1:38 minutes worth of a 5-on-3 advantage. The Devils killed off 68 seconds worth of it with some great efforts from the likes of Hischier, Brenden Dillon and Brett Pesce. But Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin, playing in his first game since returning from an injury, buried a one-timer with under one minute to play in the middle frame. That pretty much sealed the Devils’ fate.

• Luke Hughes came through with a power-play goal early in the third period. He teed up a shot from above the circles that found its way through a collection of bodies and Skinner for his fifth goal of the season.

• Defenseman Simon Nemec returned to the lineup after missing the previous 12 games with a lower-body injury. He saw 17:49 minutes of ice time. But he was on the ice when Dewar scored after the Devils failed power play.

Nemec: “I felt pretty good. I think it’s going to be better and better each game. It’s great to be back but the game wasn’t the best. … I need to be better on (the goal) and realize that there were only a couple seconds left on the penalty and back up. I have to learn from these things and hopefully it's not going to happen again."

• Devils captain Nico Hischier won 12 of 16 faceoffs head-to-head against Sidney Crosby.