Devils Streak Past Penguins
The New Jersey Devils have a chance to finish first in the NHL's Eastern Conference, something they view as a bonus rather than a necessity.
Dave Andreychuk scored twice as the Devils beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 and stretched their unbeaten streak to six games on Saturday afternoon.
The Devils improved to 3-0-3, part of a 7-1-3 streak that has gotten them within two points of the Conference-leading Ottawa Senators.
"We just want to be playing good hockey going into the playoffs," said goalie Chris Terreri, who made a rare start.
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"If we happen to come out on top, that's great. If not, we just want to make sure we're playing as well as we can when the playoffs start."
Said Andreychuk, "It's more important that we keep playing like this. I don't even look at the standings."
Then again, why worry about a thing like home-ice advantage? New Jersey has a road record of 25-9-3, best in the NHL.
The Penguins are winless in six (0-4-2) which matches their longest streak of the season. They had the same record from Feb. 26 to March 9.
"Today was as bad as we've played in a long time for the first two periods," Penguins winger Kip Miller said. "We got it going a little bit in the third but you can't expect to beat good teams that way."
Jaromir Jagr scored in the first minute of the third period and Terreri made a succession of big saves before Andreychuk's second goal at 13:32 that made it 4-2.
Rookie defenseman Sven Butenschon and Jagr failed to clear the puck, which gave Andreychuk a chance to put his 14th goal over Peter Skudra's right shoulder.
"It was just a lucky play," Andreychuk said. "The puck happened to come back to me and I don't think the goalie had a chance to get ready for the shot."
The Penguins had no positive carryover from Thursday's game in Ottawa, which saw them come back from a three-goal deficit to get a 3-3 tie.
There's something wrong with us," Jagr said.
Much of the problem as to do with injuries. The Penguins are without No. 1 goalie Tom Barrasso and haven't had defensemen Kevin Hatcher, Darius Kasparaitis and Jiri Slegr, either.
The Penguins played the last two minutes with a two-man advantage because of a penalty and the decision to pull their goalie. They did not manage a shot on goal in that time.
Skudra replaced Jean-Sebastien Aubin at the start of the third period. The Penguins said Aubin injured a hamstring. It happened in the last minute of the second period as he made a save on Sheldon Souray.
Aubin stopped the Devils' first 19 shots before Jason Arnott put in his own rebound at 4:29 of the second period. The Devils scored on their next shot just 26 seconds later. Andreychuk skated into the slot and put Sergei Brylin's pass through Aubin's pads for a 2-0 lead.
The Penguins scored a fluke goal on a power play at 7:07 of the second. Rob Brown tried to center the puck to Jan Hrdina and his pass deflected in off New Jersey defenseman Ken Daneyko's stick.
The Devils got the goal back at 15:38 when Aubin allowed a soft score by Scott Niedermayer.
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