Devils 2 Pens 1 (OT)

Well, most coaches will tell you that winning the special teams battle will win you the game at this point in the season.  It was as simple as that.  The Pens went 0 for 1 on the powerplay.  New Jersey went 1 for 1...unfortunately in overtime.  And there you have it, a 2-1 overtime loss to the hottest team in the NHL.

The game got off to a crazy start with Kris Letang dropping the gloves with Travis Zajac early.  At first it appeared to come out of nowhere, but replays showed that Letang had given Zajac a hard check and then did not skate a way, leading to Zajac dropping the gloves.  Unfortunately, Letang did not have his jersey tied down, and received a game misconduct for it.

Both teams played great back and forth hockey.  The Letestu and Staal lines played strong and put a lot of pressure on New Jersey in the first.  New Jersey deserves credit for blocking 9 shots in the first, a trend that would continue throughout the game.

New Jersey struck first in the second period, with Travis Zajac knocking a bouncing puck shortside past Brent Johnson.  The Penguins tied it shortly thereafter on a weird mishap, where Ilya Kovalchuk lost the puck to Tyler Kennedy with help from the linesman, and Kennedy roofed a wrister on Martin Brodeur.  Kennedy has now score 8 goals in his past 14 games.

In the third, we finally saw our first powerplay of the game, as Mark Letestu did a fantastic job staying with the puck and drawing a penalty from Colin White.  The powerplay never really got set though, more blocked shots of course, and the game wandered into overtime.

In overtime, New Jersey held the pace as the Pens had a significant amount of trouble trying to get out of their own end.  Kennedy tried to clear it in front of the net, and then Paul Martin turned it over in front of the net again, eventually leading to an interference call on Zbynek Michalek.  While it appeared the call may have been weak compared to the lack of calls throughout the game, you can't put yourself in the position to take a penalty in overtime this late in the season.  The Penalty Kill looked great, but was eventually overmatched as Brent Johnson made a couple of great saves but was caught out of position as the puck wandered back to Kovalchuk at the point.  Kovalchuk buried a slapshot for his 6th game winning goal in the past 12 games.

Three Stars:  #3 - Brodeur, #2 - Kennedy, #1 - Kovalchuk
Goals: Pit - Kennedy (15), NJ - Zajac (10), Kovalchuk (23)

Notes/Thoughts:
- Devils are now 19-2-2 in their last 23.
- NJ had 21 blocked shots on the night (Pens had 7).
- Kennedy has been fantastic stepping up with all the injuries...would like to see the same from Staal and Talbot
- At least Letang will be very fresh for the game in Boston tomorrow night.