In Newark, the Pittsburgh Penguins offered little resistance on Tuesday night in a 5-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils.
Dawson Mercer hit for a hat trick for New Jersey.
“It was a great feeling,” Mercer said. “I knew going into the third I had two there. The guys were saying, ‘Go get another one. Get another one.'”
Vitek Vanecek made 22 saves in the New Jersey win.
“We’d love to be here in front of our fans, start at home (in the Stanley Cup Playoffs),” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “Take it one game at a time and hopefully we can secure that spot. The destiny is in our hands, which is something I feel is important.”
New Jersey moved to 49-21-8.
Bryan Rust was the lone striker for the Pens, his goal came in the third after New Jersey had taken a 5-0 lead.
“We’re looking at the game right in front of us,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We’re disappointed tonight. We didn’t get the result. We didn’t play well enough. We got outplayed. All we can do is figure out what we can take from it and try to apply it to the next game. … We’re going to have to stay in the fight here. We’re still in it.”
Pittsburgh dropped to 38-30-10.
“I think in the second we had some chances to get ourselves back into it,” Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby said. “I think we’ve done some pretty good things. I think there’s games where we felt like we could’ve at least grabbed a point, if not two.”
Dougie Hamilton scored in the first period to give New Jersey a 1-0 lead.
Mercer scored in the opening frame for a 2-0 lead, Timo Meier scored in the second for a 3-0 lead.
Mercer finished his hat trick for the 5-0 lead into the third.
Tristan Jarry made 32 saves in the loss.
“It’s obviously not good,” Rust said. “This game wasn’t good enough. We weren’t good enough in a lot of areas of the game. I think the scoreboard reflected that.”
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