Devils stay undefeated at home with shootout win against Penguins

NEWARK, N.J. -- Jake Allen made 33 saves, and the New Jersey Devils remained undefeated at home with a 2-1 shootout win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Prudential Center on Saturday.

Arseny Gritsyuk scored for the Devils (11-4-0), who are 7-0-0 here and moved within one victory of tying their longest home win streak to start a season (1987-88).

"You want to win games at home, and I think last year we had some real struggles (19-17-5) getting our game going and finding consistency in this building," New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said. "It's something that we talked about in training camp and preseason. It was great in the third period; when we need a little more juice, I thought our fans were great."

Ryan Graves scored, and Arturs Silovs made 23 saves for the Penguins (9-4-3), who have lost three of their past four games (1-2-1). They host the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday.

"We can't accept just getting one [goal], but sometimes the game's going to dictate that," Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby said. "Sometimes it's not going to go your way, [but] we've just got to continue to play the right way. I thought we did that.

“We didn't try to cheat for offense. We had some good looks, [but] unfortunately they didn't go in."

Gritsyuk gave the Devils a 1-0 lead at 19:12 of the first period when he stole an attempted backhand pass by Kris Letang in the slot and sent a snap shot past Silovs.

New Jersey was outshot 12-6 in the first, but Allen was perfect, including a glove stop against Ville Koivunen on a quick snap shot from the slot at 9:42.

"In this league, it's hard to have your best every night, so I think that's what good teams do -- find ways to get through games when you're not at your best, or maybe the puck's not staying on your stick," Allen said. "Pittsburgh has a really good team and they put us on our heels at times. But we didn't break."

Graves, who played two seasons for the Devils (2021-23), tied it 1-1 with his first goal of the season at 12:33 of the second period. His shot from the left point deflected off the helmet of New Jersey forward Ondrej Palat and got past a screened Allen.

"We're 1-1 and we probably don't have our best by how the first 40 [minutes] went," said Devils defenseman Brenden Dillon, who had five blocked shots, four hits and fought Anthony Mantha in the first. "I think it's a maturity step for us to be able to find a way to get points out of that.

“[Allen] played great and made some big saves, which is a huge part of it. So, we'll take the positives out of it."

Silovs made nine saves in the second, including a glove stop against Jack Hughes’ wrist shot from the bottom of the right face-off circle at 19:11.

The Penguins goalie is 1-1-3 in his past five starts.

"You just try to battle," Silovs said. "You just try to put your body in a shooting lane. Sometimes it hits you, sometimes it doesn't. Today, it hit."

Paul Cotter and Jesper Bratt scored in the first two rounds of the shootout for the Devils, and Allen denied Bryan Rust and then Crosby to secure the win.

"It's tough with Sid because he always takes the same route every time but has a million different moves he can do," Allen said. "He comes so slow, so he gives himself time to maneuver, maneuver and maneuver, and sort of makes you wait. He's got so many options and when you lose your speed like that, it's a little bit hard to move. But luckily, I got a pad on it."

NOTES: New Jersey is 8-0-0 when scoring first this season. ... Allen extended his season-opening home win streak to five games, tying Chris Terreri (1990-91) for the fourth-longest run in franchise history; Alain Chevrier holds the record with 10 (1987-88). … Keefe said defenseman Dougie Hamilton will miss at least one week because of a lower-body injury sustained in the second period of a 4-3 overtime win against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday. With Hamilton unavailable, defenseman Luke Hughes led all skaters in ice time (29:39), and defenseman Simon Nemec played a career-high 26:39. ... Devils defenseman Colton White played his first NHL game since April 13, 2023, as a member of the Anaheim Ducks. He had one shot on goal in 9:55 of ice time. … Crosby had an assist to extend his point streak to four games (five points; three goals, two assists). … Kevin Hayes was activated from injured reserve and made his season debut for the Penguins after the forward sustained an upper-body injury during training camp. Hayes had four hits in 11:10 of ice time.