Malkin scores in return, Penguins defeat Devils for 6th straight win

PITTSBURGH -- Evgeni Malkin scored in his return from an upper-body injury to help the Pittsburgh Penguins win a sixth straight game, 4-1 against the New Jersey Devils at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday.

The 39-year-old forward missed 15 games since having three points (two goals, one assist) against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 4.

“Probably, first period, I felt a little bit nervous,” Malkin said. “I can’t breathe, you know? But after, like, the first, I played so much better. And I think we all played better.”

Sidney Crosby had two assists to extend his point streak to eight games (14 points; five goals, nine assists) for the Penguins (21-12-9), who have won seven of eight. Stuart Skinner made 28 saves, Erik Karlsson and Connor Dewar each had a goal and an assist, and Rickard Rakell had two assists.

“There’s not one thing right now that I'm going to say is the reason that we came out of this [holiday] break and the wins started coming,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said. “There were some games prior to the break that we were playing good hockey. We just weren’t consistent with it.

“The ebbs and flows of the game are being controlled better. That’s probably one thing, in terms of there’s a difference between these past six games and the six to 10 games prior.”

Luke Hughes scored, and Jake Allen made 25 saves for the Devils (22-20-2), who have been outscored 16-2 in three consecutive losses, including 9-0 at the New York Islanders on Tuesday.

“I’m well aware of the reality of the business and how it works,” New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I’m going to focus on getting our team ready for the next game and keep building here. ... We can use this as an organization as a great opportunity to take great steps in the big picture.

“We’ve got a lot of things we need to be better at. When we lose focus on that and we get ahead of ourselves, these kinds of things happen. We’ve got work to do to become a real hockey team. I think there’s a perception that we were a real hockey team before the work was put in, and you get exposed.”

Karlsson put Pittsburgh ahead 1-0 at 6:39 of the first period. He took a drop pass from Rakell and drove past Jack Hughes to the right face-off circle for a shot over Allen’s glove and under the crossbar.

Jesper Bratt could have tied it on a breakaway at 8:44, but had a wrist shot turned away by Skinner.

Dewar made it 2-0 at 5:23 of the second period, leaving the penalty box after serving a high-sticking minor to receive a stretch pass from Rakell and go five-hole on a breakaway.

Malkin extended the lead to 3-0 at 19:07, scoring his ninth this season on a one-timer from the left circle set up by Crosby with eight seconds remaining on a 5-on-3 power play.

“Started pretty well,” Devils forward Timo Meier said. “We were skating. Then, they scored a goal and then, kind of in the second period, they took over and we went back to our bad habits.”

Luke Hughes cut it to 3-1 with a one-timer on a power play at 2:55 of the third period to end New Jersey’s run of 14 straight goals allowed.

Blake Lizotte tapped in a pass from Noel Acciari at 13:26 for the 4-1 final.

“I feel like right when we came back from the break, we just got back to work,” Skinner said. “I feel like our details in here are really solid, and again, just like our commitment to those details. So, yeah, ever since we got back, I feel like we've been rolling pretty good. It’s our job to keep that consistency going.”

NOTES: Pittsburgh has won six in a row for the first time since a seven-game winning streak from Dec. 1-15, 2022. ... Crosby’s second assist was his 1,087th in the NHL, passing Wayne Gretzky (1,086 with the Edmonton Oilers) for the second-most with a single franchise behind Ray Bourque (1,111 with the Boston Bruins). ... Devils defenseman Simon Nemec had three shots on goal and one block in 17:49 of ice time in his first game back from missing 12 with a lower-body injury. ... Karlsson extended his home point streak to nine games (12 points; three goals, nine assists). It’s the second-longest run by a Penguins defenseman in the past 30 years, trailing Dick Tarnstrom in 2002-03 (10 games).