To start, Devils' goaltender Johan Hedberg (the moose) played totally lights out. The Pens got a few great chances in the first period, but Hedberg made even better saves. He ended up shutting down (in part) a Penguins comeback attempt.
The Devils are known best for their defense. Nobody goes to a Devils game thinking "Gee, I hope we get to see that explosive offense". The Devils like to get a lead in a game, and then lock it down defensively. They got a chance to do that today, when the Penguins spotted them a three goal lead towards the end of the second period. They promptly went into shutdown mode, and it paid off. The Pens got a goal just 14 seconds into the third period, but that was it.
The Devils played very well, but the Penguins played an extremely poor game as well. There seemed to be a lack of hustle or urgency. They would dump the puck in repeatedly, and seem to be slow to get in after it. They must be tired, however, as they have played six games in the past nine days. They were thoroughly unimpressive on offense. They always went back to the same strategy of having a defender, who was deep in his own zone, sling the puck hard to a player who was guarded near the other end of the neutral zone. It worked well under a quarter of the time. When they did get into the offensive zone, they always swung to the outside and sometimes turned it over. Sometimes a player would be driving to the net, and they would pass it to the outside only for that player to take the unscreened, long range, outside shot which would be saved effortlessly.
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