Noesen, Hischier Connect Twice, Devils Shutout Pens | GAME STORY

NEWARK, NJ - Go to the net and good things will happen.

That's an old hockey adage that proved true once again. On Saturday night, both Devils 5-on-5 goals came right in front of the net as New Jersey beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-0 and improve to 10-6-3 at home. With the shutout win, the Devils have moved into first place in the Metropolitan Division.

It was a tight checking, high intensity affair, with offense for both teams hard to come by.

It took until 17:32 of the second before either goaltender would crack and it was Stefan Noesen who banged the puck past Tristan Jarry to give the Devils a 1-0 lead. Noesen banged in a sharp angle pass from Nico Hischier to Noesen at the net front put the Devils up 1-0 with under two minutes remaining in the second period. The goal was Noesen's 15th of the season to set a new career-high in goals, in just the 36th game of the season.

Hischier and Noesen would connect once more in the third period. Off of unrelenting pressure in the offensive zone, the Devils determination to get pucks through and create a net-front presence broke down the Penguins defensive structure. Brenden Dillon's shot through traffic found it's way to the net before Hischier connected with the back of the net. As it was all playing out, Noesen was heavily engaged in a net-front battle with Pittsburgh's defenseman Ryan Shea.

"I saw red," Noesen said. "I don't really know what happened. We were just going toe-to-toe there and I actually thought I was about to fight."

Timo Meier secured the win with the empty-net goal, his 12th of the season, at 18:27 of the third.

“We got better as the game went on,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I didn’t htink our execution was great. I didn’t think we played all that well, quite honestly. Especially the first period, we just weren’t crisp, we just weren’t executing well, so we couldn’t really get a hold of the game. But a huge goal for us in thats second period, and then just textbook third period for us.”

The Devils once again held their opponent to under 17 shots in a game, holding the Penguins to just 12. The defensive buy-in has been a catalyst to success.

“We’re buying in,” Brenden Dillon said. “Keefer, from Day 1 has preached about the defense and the offense we know what we have in this room. It’s nice to see. I would even say we weren’t great tonight, I don’t think that was our best, we still had some turnovers, a little sloppy through two periods, that just shows the type of team we could be when we do commit.”

Jacob Markstrom was outstanding once again posting his fourth straight win and and is 7-0-1 in his last eight games.

Here are some observations from the game:

• Noesen expressed post-game what it has been like him to play under head coach Sheldon Keefe which has lead to so much personal success.

“You’ve got to tip your cap to the guys I’m playing with too,” Noesen humbly said. “Playing on this power play, we were red hot there for a while and I think probably half of them are on that power play but most of them are within the net-front. It’s a belief in those guys to believe that I can sit there and play and it’s belief (from) the coach too. I’d say probably in Carolina, I probably didn’t get the greatest opportunity to play a lot of minutes and Keefer has really trusted me and they assigned me to play up and down the lineup and it’s kind of what I think I do best. I can do whatever you need me to do, you want me to run through a wall, I’ll run through a wall.”

• Jacob Markstrom was outstanding for New Jersey. While he faced just 12 shots, he allowed his teammates to find their footing when the Penguins carried much of the play in the opening 30 minutes.

“Probably from a goalies perspective, keeping chances against are important, but keeping shots down is not ideal for a goalie," Keefe said. "It doesn’t get you a lot of work, those free and easy touches to get comfortable and confident in the game, starts to mess with your save percentage… all of these things are challenging for a goaltender, but he’s dialed in. We did make some mistakes here today and he had to track the puck, he had to be good for us.”

One of Markstrom's biggest saves came in the second period with Sidney Crosby on his doorstep. In a diving save and Crosby just above the bluepaint, Markstrom's outreach with his glove caught the puck just enough to change it's trajectory. Instead of crossing the goal line, the puck redirected into the post and out. It was an incredible save, where chants of Marky! Marky! rang out from the Devils faithful.

“He’s been incredible,” Dillon said. “This entire room knows what we’ve got in him. First class-guy off the ice, works his bag off every day. On the ice he’s just a competitor. It wasn’t just the saves, it was the way he was breaking the puck out for us. It was that calmness.”

• Nico Hischier hit the 30-point mark with his assist to Noesen. The Devils captain has 16 goals and 14 assists so far this season. He ends the game with 32 points after scoring the Devils second goal of the game and adding an assist on Meier's goal.

• Penguins forward Michael Bunting spent a good portion of the night trying to aggitate New Jersey. In the first period alone, Bunting took a hack with his stick at Dougie Hamilton's legs, took several opportunities to jaw at his opponents, particularly Brenden Dillon who had no problem getting into Bunting's face as well.

The antics continued in the second period, but Dillon wouldn't bite, in a 0-0 game and not wanting to risk putting his team at a disadvantage with the score tied.

“Just trying to be physical,” Dillon said of battling with Bunting. “That’s his kind of game, he wants to get in and create, stir the pot a little bit and I thought we did a great job without taking a dumb penalty or something like that to put them on the power play and that’s how myself, how our team has to play those guys hard and physical and hopefully get results like that.”

• Hamilton played his 200th game as a member of the New Jersey Devils. Hamilton is in his fourth season with New Jersey, has scored 41 goals with the franchise and added 100 assists for 141 points in 200 games.

• Earlier in the day, the Devils celebrated assistant coach Sergei Brylin to mark his 30 years of service to the franchise. You can watch the moment from inside the locker room here.