GAME STORY: Penguins 6, Devils 4

NEWARK, N.J. -The Devils took too many penalties against the NHL's hottest power play and it cost them. The Devils surrendered two power-play goals and it was the difference in a 6-4 setback to the Pittsburgh Penguins Friday night at Prudential Center.
New Jersey only took four penalties in the game, two of which were relatively soft, but that was more than enough for the Penguins, whose power play is 10 for their last 26 tries (38.5 percent). Meanwhile, the Devils power play, though it had a good showing on its lone opportunity, couldn't convert.
The Devils once again showed a lot of guts in an attempted comeback. The club fell behind 5-2 in the final frame. New Jersey managed to scored two late goals, including one with the goaltender pulled, and had a chance to tie it in the final 1:36 of play, but fell short.

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The Devils host the Penguins Sunday night. You can watch on MSG+ 2 and listen on the Devils Hockey Network,
including right here at NewJerseyDevils.com.
Game time is 7:08 PM ET.
The comeback attempt shows this team has a lot of heart, but you can't dig yourself a three-goal deficit against any team in the National Hockey League and expect to have success. The effort was valiant; however those early man-advantage goals just made the task too tall.
"We showed some good fight tonight, but when it comes down to it, we had too many sloppy calls on us," said forward Miles Wood, who had two penalties called against him in the game. "I'll take the blame for the fourth goal, the power-play goal that they had.
"I loved the fight in our team. It was a big 6-on-5 goal for us. Just too little, too late."
The Devils need to play a near perfect game against a team like Pittsburgh in order to win. They'll get a second chance on Sunday night in a rematch with the Penguins.
"They know how to win," said Wood, who scored two goals in the game for New Jersey. "You can't play each game with your A Game, but they know how to win with their B Game.
"They're a great team. They're a Stanley Cup team. They're a veteran team. They just know how to win."
The Devils received goals from Wood (twice), Jack Hughes and Jesper Boqvist. Hughes and Boqvist have scored in each of the past two games.
Pittsburgh goals came from Jared McCann, Brian Dumoulin, Colton Sceviour, Bryan Rust (twice) and Sidney Crosby.
* There's something about bad-angle shots against the Penguins that seem to hit the twine for center Jack Hughes. In the first meeting between the clubs this season on March 18, Hughes banked a shot from the goal line off of the mask of Tristan Jarry and into the net (coincidentally, it was the last goal Hughes scored before hitting a 10-game goal-less drought that was snapped Thursday night against Buffalo).
Hughes scored another goal from the goal line against the Penguins Friday night. This time it came after Yegor Sharangovich took a shot from the circle and Janne Kuokkanen got a shot on the rebound. The puck popped out to Hughes on the goal line and Hughes buried it.
All of sudden Hughes can do no wrong and the puck is following him. The hockey gods work in mysterious ways.
* Hughes' line continues to produce. They've accounted for four goals in the past two games and 12 total points: Hughes (2G-2A), Kuokkanen (1G-3A), Sharangovich (1G-3A).
* Hughes, by the way, got it done at both ends. The duties of defending Crosby, arguably the greatest player in the world, typically fell on the shoulders of Travis Zajac. With his departure in a trade Wednesday, it appeared that the Devils tried to use Hughes' line against Crosby's line for much of the game: a power vs. power strategy.
"He had a tough assignment. I gave him the Crosby line," Ruff said. "That's not an assignment that Jack usually gets. I felt for the most part in the game I thought he did a great job. That line did. You're looking at three young guys playing against Sid.
"That's our future right there. That's the guys that we need to have going head-to-head against a lot of good players in the league. I tried not to shy away from it."
With his team trailing 5-3 and with less than three minutes to play, Hughes blocked a shot by Frederick Gaudreau that was ticketed for an empty-net. New Jersey scored a minute later to cut the deficit to one.
* And speaking of hot Devils, forward Jesper Bratt picked up an assist in the game. He now has 14 points (4G-10A) in his last 14 games and 18 (4-14) in his past 20.
"The longer the season went on I've gotten used to the system and the game speed," Bratt said. "I wasn't here really for training camp and got right into the season. I feel more comfortable in my game right now. The line we have with Wood and (Zacha) is going pretty well."
* Devils goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood received a rare two-game break after sitting the last two games, both against Buffalo. The decision had little to do with Blackwood's play. On the contrary, the Devils gave him the brief reprieve of duty so that he could be the team's workhorse down the stretch of the regular season.
Blackwood, 24, looked like a well-rested tender against the Penguins. He also looked like, well, Mackenzie Blackwood. That means he made spectacular save after spectacular save. And the only pucks to get behind him were on some unlucky fluke bounces or perfect shots.
Blackwood stoned Penguins Jared McCann in the slot and on the tail end of a 3-on-1 chance. But it was Pittsburgh's Sam Lafferty that was the recipient of Blackwood's best work. The goaltender denied Lafferty twice with a split glove save, once on a breakaway and later in the game on a point-blank rebound.
* Hockey is a simple game in many ways. Control the puck, get bodies to the net, get pucks to the net. The Devils scored the game's opening goal with such an approach. Pavel Zacha won an offensive zone face-off and got the puck to Bratt. He put the puck on net as Wood drove to the crease and got inside leverage on Pittsburgh's Kris Letang. Bratt's shot was bobbled by goaltender Casey DeSmith. Wood, who leads the team with 13 goals on the year, found the puck in the blue paint and lifted it over DeSmith's outstretched pad.
Conversely, an offensive zone face-off win by Pittsburgh also led to a goal. After the draw, Letang threw a puck at the net. Colton Sceviour tipped the shot. The puck started rising, but then hit the stick of Ty Smith and fell back to the ice and into the net. It was an unfortunate break for New Jersey. But good things happen when you shoot the puck and go to the net.