PENGUINS (12-7-0) at DEVILS (6-8-5)
TV: ROOT, MSG-PLUS
Last 10: Pittsburgh 5-5-0; New Jersey 5-3-2
Season series: This is the second of four meetings between the Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils. The Penguins defeated the Devils 3-0 on opening night for both teams at Consol Energy Center.
Big story: Both teams played Friday night and came up with different results. The Penguins broke out of their offensive slump with a 4-1 win against the Nashville Predators; the Devils were shut out by Ben Scrivens and the Los Angeles Kings. The Devils had won two in a row and were 3-0-1 in their past four games prior to losing 2-0 to the Kings.
Team Scope:
Penguins: After scoring one goal in each of their three previous games, the Penguins got goals from Pascal Dupuis, James Neal, Kris Letang and Brandon Sutter to beat the Predators. They fell behind 1-0 early in the game but scored twice before the end of the first period.
For Neal, it was his first goal in his fourth game of the season. He has played three games since returning from a monthlong absence because of an injury and said he's rediscovering his chemistry with Evgeni Malkin, who had two assists Friday and now has 15 assists on the season.
"We're just going to continue to get better here, and Geno had some great chances again [Friday night] and he had some great passes," Neal said. "We had some good looks."
Just as important for the Penguins was the fact that they held the Predators to 18 shots on goal, but that was a byproduct of how well they played offensively.
Devils: New Jersey ran into a hot goalie Friday night and got burned because of it. The Devils had 26 shots on goal, including 12 in the first period, but could not find an opening in Scrivens.
"We just have to keep doing the same things," Devils coach Peter DeBoer said. "We're generating some chances. We have to find a way to capitalize on the power play. We have to keep throwing pucks and bodies to the net. We're not a pretty group offensively. We have to score some ugly goals."
Martin Brodeur will be in net for the Devils on Saturday, so maybe their offense will show up. The Devils have scored 28 goals in Brodeur's 10 starts this season compared to 10 in Schneider's nine starts.
Schneider was in net on opening night when the Devils lost 3-0 in Pittsburgh.
