Devils Remain Undefeated at Home With 2-1 Shootout Win Against the Penguins

Published: Saturday, November 8, 2025

by Ryan Nelke

NEWARK, N.J. - The New Jersey Devils (11-4-0) defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins (9-4-3) on Saturday afternoon in the shootout by a score of 2-1, remaining undefeated at home this season.

Out of the gates, it was the Devils that applied the initial offensive pressure, getting multiple solid opportunities but failing to capitalize.  Around the halfway mark of the first, after a big time hit on Pittsburgh’s Tomas Novak delivered by Brenden Dillon, the mitts were dropped between Dillon and Anthony Mantha.

Following this fight, the momentum was turned over to the Penguins, as they began spending a lot of their time in the Devils zone, but similar to New Jersey, could not find the back of the net.

However, with under a minute to go in the opening frame, Arseny Gritsyuk forced a turnover right in front of the Pittsburgh net off an errand pass, and with no defenders in front of him, chipped it past Penguins netminder Arturs Silovs to give New Jersey the lead.

The score would stay that way for the remaining 48 seconds of the period, and the Devils took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.

Coming out of the break, the Devils were quickly put on the powerplay, but could not take advantage, as the Penguins killed it off pretty handily.

New Jersey held the 1-0 lead for the majority of the period until Ryan Graves shot from the point at the 7:27 mark deflected off Ondrej Palat, sneaking behind Devils goalie Jake Allen, as he never saw the puck.  The assists would be credited to Bryan Rust and Sidney Crosby.

When the clock read triple zeroes, both teams left the ice in a 1-1 stalemate at the second intermission.

Outside an early slashing penalty from Stefan Noesen and a late cross checking minor from Evgeni Malkin, there was not much to write home about in the third, as both teams remained in a 1-1 deadlock as they went to overtime.

The Devils applied constant pressure during overtime, but could not crack the Pittsburgh defense as well as Silovs.  A last second, buzzer-beater slap shot attempt from Jack Hughes was denied by Silovs, and this Metropolitan matchup was off to the shootout.

Paul Cotter, New Jersey’s shootout specialist was up first, and with some nice stick work, he beat Silovs.  Rust followed up Cotter, but Allen shut the door.

The Devils put out Jesper Bratt for round two, and he made Silovs look silly, as with some beautiful moves, he found the back of the net.  With New Jersey scoring on the first two chances, Pittsburgh needed Crosby to score on his impending attempt to keep the game alive, but once again, Allen did not budge, securing the victory for the Devils.

For New Jersey, they are a perfect 7-0-0 at home this season and will look to extend it to eight when they wrap up their home stand on Monday night against the Islanders, before taking off for a long five-game road trip beginning in Chicago on Wednesday.

Ryan Nelke is an Assistant Sports Director and can be reached at nelkerya@shu.edu.

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