Murray makes 33 saves for Penguins in win against Devils

NEWARK, N.J. -- Matt Murray made 33 saves for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 4-3 win against the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center on Tuesday.

Chad Ruhwedel, Bryan Rust, Zach Aston-Reese and Nick Bjugstad scored for the Penguins (32-21-7), who defeated the Devils for the first time in four tries this season (1-3-0).
WATCH: [All Penguins vs. Devils highlights]
"Every time we play Jersey it's a hard-fought battle and there's no secrets out there," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "We know exactly what we're going to get from them. They're a hard-working team, they play with good structure, they're well coached and it's hard to play against those guys.
"This game wasn't so much about skill, it was more about will, and that's what we talked about before the game."
Sidney Crosby had an assist to extend his point streak to six games, and Evgeni Malkin had an assist to extend his personal point streak to eight for Pittsburgh, which moved into third place in the Metropolitan Division, two points behind the Washington Capitals.
"I thought we played really well in the second, we got a lot of offensive-zone time," Aston-Reese said. "We kind of shut it down in the third period. We gave them a late goal but that was just an unlucky bounce."
Jesper Bratt and Marcus Johansson each had a goal and an assist, Mirco Mueller had two assists, and Keith Kinkaid made 24 saves for the Devils (23-29-8).

"I think we started the game well and ended it well, but the second period was not good enough," Johansson said. "We didn't play to our strengths and we let them play to theirs. I think a few of their goals we did it to ourselves. We made a push for it but not quite good enough."
Rust made it 3-2 from the slot when his snapshot deflected off the left pad of Kinkaid and through the five-hole at 10:45 of the second period.
"We were playing in their face and playing aggressive (in the second period)," Rust said. "At the same time, we were backchecking hard, reloading for each other, and I think we got to take note of that moving forward, learn from that, and know how good we can be if we do things the right way."
Ruhwedel extended the lead to 4-2 off a slap shot from the point at 17:29 for his first goal of the season. Malkin's assist gave him 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in his streak. He missed one game with a suspension.

Miles Wood scored off a wrist shot 15:10 into the third period to pull the Devils within 4-3.
Bratt gave the Devils a 1-0 lead off a snap shot from the right circle 2:14 into the first period. Aston-Reese scored from the slot off a pass by Crosby at 6:49 to tie the game 1-1. Crosby has 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) in his streak.
Johansson stole the puck from Phil Kessel and scored off a backhand to give the Devils a 2-1 lead at 12:12. Bjugstad tied it 2-2 on the power play off a wrist shot from the left circle at 18:24.
Murray made 15 saves in the third period.
"I thought [Murray] was pretty solid, for the most part," Sullivan said. "I mean, obviously, that last one squeaked in and the [Johansson] goal, it is what it is, but other than that he made some timely saves for us."

They said it

"I felt we were on the puck and moving our feet and it was nice where we had a [second] period where there weren't [any] penalties, so we got into a flow a little bit. We could just roll our lines over the boards and I thought the guys were into it; shift lengths were reasonable and line changes were good and we kept rolling. I liked the energy on the bench and it was translating onto the ice."-- Penguins coach Mike Sullivan
"They had our number so it's nice to get that one, especially going down the stretch to the playoffs. Those are important wins." -- Penguins forward Zach Aston-Reese
"I think we still match up well against them. I don't think we gave them too much. We just have to keep that full 60 minutes. We can't let it slip, and I think that's been a problem for us ... consistency all year."-- Devils goalie Keith Kinkaid

Need to know

Malkin tied Pavel Datsyuk for third on the all-time list among Russia-born players with 604 assists. … Crosby and Malkin each had three assists in four games against the Devils this season. ... Bratt has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in his past nine games. ... Devils forward Travis Zajac had an assist in his 900th NHL game. … Devils forward Blake Coleman had five hits in 12:27 after missing four games with an upper-body injury. … The Devils went 0-for-2 on the power play to end their streak of five straight games with at least one power-play goal (5-for-17).

What's next

Penguins:Host the San Jose Sharks on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; SNE, SNO, SNP, ATTSN-PT, NBCSCA, NHL.TV)
Devils:Host the Ottawa Senators on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; MSG+, RDS2, TSN5, NHL.TV)