GAME STORY: Penguins 5, Devils 1

PITTSBURGH, Pa. -The Devils kept this game close in the opening half, but the Penguins managed to pull away with three goals in the second period to win, 5-1, at PPG Paints Arena Thursday night.
Pittsburgh received goals from Sidney Crosby, Cody Ceci, Bryan Rust, Kasperi Kapanen and Teddy Blueger. New Jersey's Matt Tennyson scored his first goal of the season (and first as a Devil).

YOUR GAME-DAY ESSENTIALS
WATCH ARCHIVE
Watch the Devils Post-Game Show with Chris Wescott and Matt Loughlin for analysis, interviews, highlights and more!
POST-GAME VIDEOS
Full Game Highlights
COMING SOON - Amanda Stein Wraps Up the Game with her Post-Game Report
Players Post-Game Interviews:
Hischier
I Severson
Devils head coach Lindy Ruff gives his thoughts after the game
GAME STATS CENTRAL
Game Summary
Event Summary
Time on Ice - Devils
Time on Ice - Penguins
Full Game Play-by-Play
Shot Report
Face-Off Summary
Face-Off Comparison
NHL.com's Shift Chart
Roster Report, Scratches & Starting Lineups
MORE
View Photo Gallery
NHL.com's Game Center
Look back at the In-Game Blog
WHAT'S NEXT
The Devils continue their four-game road trip, starting with one more in Pittsburgh. Game 4 is Saturday. You can watch on MSG+ and listen on the Devils Hockey Network,
including right here at NewJerseyDevils.com.
Game time is 12:38 PM ET.
New Jersey, which has lost eight straight games, will meet the Penguins in the season finale Saturday afternoon, and head coach Lindy Ruff has put the onus on himself to have his team ready to play.
"It's an awful disappointed group from top-down," Ruff said. "It's on me to get to them to the right place, to pick them up, to get them ready to play the next game. That falls on me."
Here are some other observations from the game…
* The Devils lost this game in a 25-second span. That's when the Penguins transformed a 2-1 second-period lead and blew it open with two goals from Rust and Kapanen to make it 4-1. What made the sequence so frustrating is that the Devils had played a great game up to that point, and were skating shift-for-shift with the Penguins. Those 25 seconds changed everything.
The Penguins would add a third goal, shorthanded no less, from Blueger for three goals in a 3:56-minute span. The shorthanded tally certainly was the back breaker, but the two-goal 25-second moment was the game decider.
* Following the 7-6 loss on Tuesday, Ruff said New Jersey "flat-out needs better goaltending." That sentiment will likely be repeated after this game.
Tuesday, Scott Wedgewood got the start and was pulled after surrendering four goals on 13 shots. Aaron Dell replaced Wedgewood and gave up a goal on his first shot against. Fast forward to tonight, Dell got the start and he was pulled after surrendering four goals on 15 shots. Wedgewood came in and gave up a goal on his first shot against.
It's like déjà vu all over again.
It was a bad omen early for Dell. In the opening minute of the game he tried to cover a loose puck at the crease, but bobbled it. The Penguins maintained possession and Crosby scored just 41 seconds into the game to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead.
While some goals can be forgiven (see Rust's score off of a 2-on-1), others needed to be stopped (see Ceci's shot from the point). The Devils are a team that can't afford to give another team easy goals. Just one timely save could have been the difference Tuesday night. And one timely save could have given them a fighting chance tonight.
"We're all in this together. I'm not here to call anybody out," captain Nico Hischier said. "I feel they made some good saves for us. At the end of the day it's the whole team. We're in this together."
Of course, the players in front of the goaltender also have to do their part.
"We're giving too many odd-man rushes and giving too easy goals, too easy looks from the middle," blueliner Damon Severson said. "Limiting those middle ice shots, and limiting the Grade A chances - 2-on-1s, breakways, stuff like that - sticking between the dots and make them have to come through us, no matter who the team we are playing is."
* Though it didn't mean much in the final score, the Devils did have a much better first period. For the first time in five games, New Jersey went into the opening intermission not trailing by either a 4-0 or 3-0 count.
The Devils even answered Pittsburgh's opening minute goal from Crosby with one from Tennyson. The first period was tied until Ceci's goal with 2:14 remaining. Again, it might not mean much with the final result, but the Devils had a problem and fixed the problem.
* The Devils were a healthier bunch Thursday night with the return of forwards Pavel Zacha and Jesper Bratt, the club's Top-2 point producers. Instead of reuniting the Zacha - Nico Hischier - Bratt line from the start, Ruff opted to have Zacha and Bratt split on different lines - just in case one wasn't quite ready to return. But Ruff must have liked what he saw because late in the first period the band was back together and stayed that way through the game's finish.
* One area that the Devils have struggled with defensively is their play on odd-man rushes, particularly on 2-on-1s. In this instance, every goaltender would prefer to square up on the shooter and take his chances. The defenseman's job is to make sure the puck doesn't get across for a pass, which makes life nearly impossible for the goaltender. The Devils defense as a whole hasn't been good enough in those situations, and the Guentzel-Rust connection made them pay once again.