NEWARK, N.J. -- Colton Sceviour doesn't score a lot of goals.
And he scores even fewer by backhanding pucks out of the air while facing away from the net.
Under normal circumstances, then, the goal Sceviour got that way to put the Penguins in front to stay during their 6-4 victory over New Jersey at Prudential Center Friday night would have made great fodder for the headlines and highlights.
As it was, however, it barely qualified as an afterthought.
Sure, it was Sceviour's first goal of any sort in 27 games, but it had been a whole lot longer than that since each member of the Penguins' No. 1 defense pairing put a puck into his own net in less than half a period to inject real drama into a apparently comfortable victory..
If it had ever happened.
Well, there really is a first time for everything, and Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin proved it in a span of six minutes and 50 seconds during the third period.
It started when a harmless-looking centering pass by Devils forward Jesper Boqvist caromed off Letang's right skate and sailed under the crossbar behind Casey DeSmith at 11:34 to slice New Jersey's deficit to 5-3.
That goal rejuvenated the Devils, but they couldn't get another puck behind DeSmith until 18:24, when Dumoulin inadvertently shot one off DeSmith's leg and into the net from behind the goal line.
"(DeSmith) was the victim of a couple of fluky goals," Mike Sullivan said, illustrating his gift for understatement.
Make no mistake, those goals were not what the Penguins have in mind when they talk about wanting to get scoring from their defensemen.
The Dumoulin goal, which was credited to Miles Wood, meant the Penguins were just one more bad bounce away from going to overtime in a game they seemingly had wrapped up, but Bryan Rust snuffed that threat by scoring into an empty net with 24.9 seconds to go in regulation.
That was goal No. 2 of the night for Rust, who had failed to record a point in the previous five games.
His second was the only one by either team that didn't have to get by a goaltender. And while combining to give up nine goals on 56 shots didn't do much for the save percentages of DeSmith and his New Jersey counterpart, Mackenzie Blackwood, their reputations made it through the evening without so much as a single scuff.
"The score is not very indicative of the goaltending," Rust said. "Both guys made some really nice saves."
Enough of them that, had either goalie had been off his game even a little, the other side might have made it into double-figures.
"Both teams had some chances," Sidney Crosby said. "I thought both goalies did a pretty good job, even though the score was a little higher."
While there was no shortage of outstanding stops, none was more spectacular than DeSmith's sprawling save with his blocker on Boqvist in the middle of the second period.
"Humungous save," Rust said. "We were on our heels a little bit in the second period, and to have a save like that was huge."
It proved to be as important as it was unconventional.
"Sometimes, technique kind of goes out the window," Crosby said.
Blackwood, meanwhile, put together his own portfolio of excellence, beginning with a glove save on Jared McCann during a 3-on-1 break 8 1/2 minutes into the opening period. That was the first of several exceptional saves on McCann, and Blackwood was particularly cruel to Sam Lafferty, repeatedly rejecting high-quality chances that could have yielded his first of the season.
He could not, however, prevent Sceviour from scoring one of the more improbable goals of 2020-21, when he batted a Letang rebound out of the air and into the net.
"I took a swing at it, trying to make some sort of contact," Sceviour said. "I hit it pretty square, and it found a way in."
His went down as the strangest goal of the game, although it had to withstand a late challenge from the ones Letang and Dumoulin grafted onto the storyline.
Those two infused the outcome with some genuine uncertainty, in part because the Penguins were not functioning at peak efficiency, which was the case for much of the game.
"We could have been better, positionally (late in the game)," Sullivan said. "We could have been better, with the decisions we made with the puck."
His rather blunt, bottom-line assessment of the Penguins' 60-minute showing: "We found a way to win, but I don't think we were at our best."
That's fair, although they still were good enough to climb within two points of the New York Islanders and Washington, who are tied for first place in the East Division.
The Penguins haven't quite returned to the form that preceded their recent two-game defensive meltdown, but they're still accumulating points at a pretty healthy clip. Especially when the players on their injured list could form the core of a competitive expansion team.
That could be why Sullivan contends his club still has some untapped potential.
"We're by no means satisfied," he said. "We know there's another level to this team."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• The Penguins' power play was 2-for-4, giving it multiple goals in three of the past eight games.
• Mark Jankowski received the second assist on Sceviour's goal, extending his career-best scoring streak to four games.
• The Penguins finished with 18 hits, none bigger than the one Rust threw that dropped Devils winger Nicholas Merkley in the neutral zone late in the second period.
• Dumoulin's first-period goal -- that's the one he scored on Blackwood, not DeSmith -- extended his scoring streak to four games. He also accounted for four of the Penguins' 12 shot-blocks.
• New Jersey center Pavel Zacha continues to mature into an excellent player. He recorded a game-high eight shots on goal and won 13 of 21 faceoffs.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Prudential Center:
1. Sidney Crosby, Penguins
2. Bryan Rust, Penguins
3. Jack Hughes, Devils
THE INJURIES
• Center Evgeni Malkin is week-to-week because of an unspecified lower-body injury sustained March 16.
• Center Teddy Blueger has been out since March 15 with an unspecified upper-body injury, but practiced Friday.
• Winger Brandon Tanev is week-to-week with an unspecified upper-body injury sustained April 3.
• Winger Anthony Angello has missed the past three games because of an unspecified upper-body injury.
• Defenseman Mark Friedman is day-to-day with an unspecified upper-body injury sustained March 4, but has been skating.
• Forward Kasperi Kapanen is week-to-week with a lower-body injury sustained March 24 and hasn't skated yet.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker-Jared McCann-Evan Rodrigues
Zach Aston-Reese-Frederick Gaudreau-Sam Lafferty
Radim Zohorna-Mark Jankowski-Colton Sceviour
Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Mike Matheson-Cody Ceci
Marcus Pettersson-John Marino
And for Lindy Ruff's Devils:
Janne Kuokkanen-Jack Hughes-Yegor Sharangovich
Miles Wood-Pavel Zacha-Jesper Bratt
Andreas Johnsson-Jesper Boqvist-Nicholas Merkley
Mikhail Maltsev-Michael McLeod-Tyce Thompson
Dmitry Kulikov-P.K. Subban
Ryan Murray-Dmon Severson
Ty Smith-Sami Vatanen
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will be off Saturday before closing out their six-game road trip with a game against the Devils Sunday at 7:08 p.m.
THE CONTENT
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