Devils Stifle Penguins in 3-0 Home Victory – The Hockey Writers NHL News Latest News, Analysis & More

The New Jersey Devils faced the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night – “Jersey Shore Night” at the Prudential Center. The theme night fun wasn’t the only fun had by Devils fans, as their team cruised to a 3-0 victory. Jacob Markstrom stopped all 12 in the contest for his second shutout of the season. The Devils move to 22-11-3, while the Penguins fall to 15-15-5.

The first period started with minimal chances, as the ice was fairly choppy after an early afternoon Rutgers-Princeton college basketball game. Neither team was able to sustain control of the puck for a lengthy amount of time and the frame went scoreless.

Devils’ defenseman Brenden Dillon told The Hockey Writers, “The ice was in there maybe just in time for warmups. When that happens, we’re expecting it to be crappy.”

The second period was more of the same, until Markstrom made a great save to take a sure goal away from Sidney Crosby. But the sloppiness continued as any semi-decent scoring chance ended in a fumbling of the puck or a misdirected pass. The Devils finally broke through with the game’s first goal as Nico Hischier threaded a pass in tight to Stefan Noesen, who buried it. It was Noesen’s career-high 15th goal of the season.

The sloppiness continued until 12:13 left in the third, when Hischier scored off a wild scramble to double the lead. Noesen battled with Ryan Shea in front of the net to make it happen.

Yeahhhhhh buddy! pic.twitter.com/wGt948bHAl

— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) December 22, 2024

Noesen said, “I saw red, I don’t know what happened. We were just going toe to toe, and I actually thought I was about to fight. Whenever the puck went in, I was a little surprised, if you saw some choice words come out of my mouth that was directed at one person in particular…it was just a swing fest.”

The Devils shut it down defensively afterward, as they have for most of the season. Then, Timo Meier sealed it with an empty netter. It’s now five straight games that they’ve allowed 20 or fewer shots (14 tonight).

The Devils will remain home to take on their rival New York Rangers at 1:00 PM Monday afternoon; the Penguins will return to PPG Paints Arena to face the Philadelphia Flyers later that day (7:00 PM).