Pens drop decision to Devils, in OT

In Pittsburgh, the New Jersey Devils’ Jesper Bratt scored off a wraparound at at 2:50 of extra time to deliver a 2-1 win over the Penguins.

“Think we played much harder as a group,” Bratt said. “We wanted to win. That was something that mirrored our game today. We wanted to compete, and we wanted to win this game really bad. That’s how it should be. … Overall, it was a great performance by all the four lines.”

Mackenzie Blackwood made 35 saves to get the win.

“They’re playing responsible hockey,” Blackwood said. “They’re not forcing stuff. They’re doing the right things in the [defensive] zone, making smart plays and not taking chances offensively, and giving up a lot defensively. So they did a great job of limiting that and playing a very solid game. Makes it a lot easier for me.”

Sidney Crosby scored the lone Pens goal to give them a 1-0 lead.

“We’re playing a lot of games here. We just went through a stretch where we played an awful lot of hockey (five games in seven days),” Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan said. “So that’s one of the challenges in this particular circumstance in this year with the condensed schedule. So we’ve got to get contributions throughout our lineup if we’re going to get consistent results.

“We’re getting consistent offensive production, obviously, from Crosby’s line. But it would help if we could get some more from the bottom nine. So that’s one of our challenges right now.”

Sami Vatanen scored for the Devils in regulation to tie the game and force the extra session.

“I thought our response was really good,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. “We stuck with it. We played the game the right way. We came right back at them and ended up down in their zone for a while and had some great shifts. … Disappointing to have that goal [from Crosby] go in, but at the same time, I thought our game plan, we stuck with it. We got rewarded by the end of the game.”

Tristan Jarry made 33 saves in the loss.

“I thought, tonight, we generated some decent chances [from] every line,” Crosby said. “Didn’t capitalize. It was a close game, and obviously in overtime, anything can happen. But I think if you want to win consistently, everybody’s got to chip in.”