Pennsylvania Finishes the 2 -Game Sweep

Apr 9, 2026; Newark, New Jersey, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin (71) celebrates goal against the New Jersey Devils during the third period at Prudential Center. Mandatory Credit: Luther Schlaifer-Imagn Images | Luther Schlaifer-Imagn Images As we play out the string here after being eliminated on Tuesday, the best you can hope for is to see a little pride in the Devils game. Or if you are team tank, you’re gleefully tapping your fingers like Mr.

Burns and saying “excellent. ” 1st Period I was a little surprised to see the Devils come out of the gates as hot as they did, taking an early 6-0 shot advantage highlighted by Timo Meier post on a breakaway. Unfortunately, they would do what they do best, and have a brutal defensive zone break down and give up the first goal on the first Penguin shot.

Nemec got absolutely lost, and no one was covering Rust on a cross slot pass, and one more time for old time’s sake it’s 1-0 them. From then on the Devils got absolutely buried the rest of the period, getting outshot 15-10 (14-4 after the Penguins goal) and 60/40 splits on every other metric. The Devils got a relatively inconsequential powerplay where not much happened – I only bring it up to note that Nemec got the QB nod over Dougie on PP1.

2nd Period The reverse happened ii the second, where Pittsburgh kept their momentum, starting the period on the front foot for the first 10 minutes. Dougie hit Cotter for a breakaway on an alley oop pass out of the zone, and Cotter doesn’t miss on breakaways – tying it up 1-1 at 9:51. View Link The tie was short lived, as the Penguins broke through less than two minutes later on a 3-on-2, Karlsson flipped a nice pass through Cholowski to Malkin who dropped it off to Novak who buried it high.