Penguins finish strong to beat Devils, pick up 4th straight W

Connor Dewar scored twice, leading the host Pittsburgh Penguins to a 7-3 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday afternoon.

Philip Tomasino scored and added an assist for the Penguins, who extended their win streak to four games.

Danton Heinen, Rickard Rakell, Erik Karlsson and Kevin Hayes also scored as Pittsburgh won for the fifth time in nine games and improved to 17-13-5 on its home ice this season.

Tristan Jarry made 24 saves, moving to 4-0-0 since being recalled from the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on March 3.

Cody Glass, Timo Meier, and Nico Hischier responded for the Devils, which had their three-game win streak snapped in the loss.

Jesper Bratt added three assists for New Jersey, which had won six straight in Pittsburgh and nine of 10 overall, and Jacob Markstrom stopped 16 shots.

Trailing 4-1, New Jersey scored twice in a minute to make it a one-goal game early in the third period. Meier first put a wrist shot past Jarry on a power play at 5:40 of the third, then Hischier tipped in a Luke Hughes point shot on a power play to cut the Pittsburgh lead to 4-3.

Karlsson restored the Penguins' two-goal lead, putting a wrist shot from the point past Markstrom on a power play at 14:17 of the third. Dewar added an empty netter with 55 seconds remaining. And Hayes capped the scoring with a floater past Markstrom 23 seconds later.

Tomasino gave the Penguins a 4-1 cushion 2:22 into the third, capitalizing off a Jonathan Kovacevic turnover and snapping a shot under the glove of Markstrom.

The Penguins took a 3-1 lead at 4:24 of the middle frame as Rakell one-timed a Sidney Crosby feed between the pads of Markstrom.

Pittsburgh outshot New Jersey 7-6 in the opening 20 minutes and led 2-1.

Glass opened the scoring midway through the first, snapping a shot glove side past Jarry.

The Penguins scored twice in 25 seconds to take their first lead of the afternoon.

Pittsburgh tied it 1-1 when Dewar put home his own rebound at 17:11 and Heinen added a score of his own by finishing off a 2-on-1 feed from Tomasino.

With the three assists, Bratt has three straight three-point games (two goals, eight assists). His 60 assists tie the Devils' single-season record held by former captain Scott Stevens.

--Field Level Media