New Jersey Is The Epitome Of Devil Frustration Again; Beat Penguins, 3-1

If there's one word to sum up the Pittsburgh Penguins' latest defeat to New Jersey -- this time 3-1 to the Devils on the road last night -- it's frustration.

Massive and untolerable frustration.

Okay, so that's 4 words.

The Penguins came out of the gate last night intending to show the Devils that they weren't the same team New Jersey has defeated 4 straight times already this year.

And for a while, that's exactly what they did.

After giving up an early goal where the Devils caught a break when New Jersey defenseman Andy Greene's shot missed the net wide only to bounce hard off the backboards in front for an easy goal by winger/center Patrick Elias, Sidney Crosby brought the Penguins right back into it less than a minute later when he capitalized on a Devils' turnover in the neutral zone and scored on the ensuing 2-on-1 to tie the game.

In the 2nd period, what already was a chippy affair got chippier, when Penguins' LW Craig Adams was given a 5 minute boarding penalty and a game misconduct for a hit from behind on former Penguin and current Devils' defenseman Martin Skoula.

At first, I thought the call was made because it was a senseless hit on an icing play, and that's something the league is trying to get out of the game. Strangely, however, there seemed to be some question as to whether the play actually was icing. It occurred behind the New Jersey net and play stopped after the hit, but Skoula never went down and the Penguins never had possession of the puck to have play stopped.

Mixed explanations for the call from the officials didn't help the Penguins, but despite that adversity, Pittsburgh's strong PK unit stepped up and killed off the major.

Late in the 2nd frame, Pittsburgh faced -- and overcame -- more adversity.

Devils' star forward Ilya Kovalchuk found himself on a breakaway, only to be slashed and hauled down from behind by Pens' defenseman Kris Letang, resulting in a penalty shot for one of the more dangerous forwards in the game.

But Pittsburgh netminder Marc-Andre Fleury stepped up big and stoned Kovalchuk to give the Penguins some momentum back going into the third period.

That momentum continued when Pens' LW Matt Cooke and Devils forward Rob Niedermayer fought just 3 seconds in, which was the carryover from an incident that occurred at the end of the 2nd period when those two collided near the penalty box and Niedermayer needlessly got his stick up on Cooke's head, but no penalty was called.

Despite giving up 3 inches to the Devils' forward in height, Cooke handled Niedermayer in the fight easily, but the lift the Penguins got from that was killed just a few minutes later when Greene ripped one from 40 feet over Fleury's glove, top corner on a long, uncontested rebound to give the Devils a 2-1 lead.

The Penguins certainly weren't out of the game at this point -- despite continued difficulty getting pucks past New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur, who had been playing poorly recently but suddenly looked like his usual self against Pittsburgh last night.

But if they weren't out of the game then, they were effectively out of it at the 10 minute mark when Devils forward Travis Zajac got away with goaltender interference on a simple point shot by Kovalchuk that ended up floating past Fleury for an insurmountable 3-1 Devils' edge.

Zajac was skating towards the front of the net from Fleury's left and, just as Kovalchuk tossed the puck on net and Fleury was about to glove it, Zajac jabbed at Fleury's glove hand with his stick and knocked it out of the path of the puck.

Fleury protested vigorously, and the official listened, but since he didn't see it, there was little he could do.

Of course, Zajac could very well have been trying to deflect the puck there, but simply missed and caught Fleury's glove instead. That doesn't matter, though, because there's no exception to goaltender interference when you don't intend to do it. The fact is, it was a penalty that should have been called and the officials' failure to catch it really put the Penguins in a tough position.

Not surprisingly, with the Devils up to their usual trapping, Pittsburgh got no closer and the game ended in a 3-1 New Jersey victory.

The Devils moved to within 2 points of Pittsburgh in the Atlantic Division with the win. The teams play again in New Jersey next Wednesday in what is sure to be another highly contested game. Will the Penguins finally beat those guys? I mean, REALLY.

One thing is for sure -- I know how the Philadelphia Flyers felt a few years ago when the Penguins swept the season series from them. And that was EIGHT games. It's just the epitome of frustration.

Ugh.

Let's hope the Penguins can get back on the winning track before then when they play the Lightning Sunday afternoon in Tampa (5:00 PM EST). They don't want to have lost 3 straight going into next Wednesday's rematch in New Jersey.

More later.