New Jersey Devils vs Pittsburgh Penguins Match Player Stats On Oct 30, 2021

Jesper Bratt scored a tiebreaking goal on a penalty shot with 3:00 left in regulation Saturday as the visiting New Jersey Devils topped the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-2.

Bratt was pushed into the net by Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh's captain and most decorated player, who was making his season debut after offseason wrist surgery. Bratt was awarded a penalty shot and slid a backhander past Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry for a 3-2 lead.

Andreas Johnsson's second goal of the game, an empty-netter with 1:43 left, closed the scoring.

Jimmy Vesey also scored for the Devils, who were playing their first road game.

New Jersey goaltender Jonathan Bernier, back after missing the previous three games because of a lower-body injury, made 33 saves.

Danton Heinen and Brock McGinn scored, and Zach Aston-Reese added two assists for the Penguins, who lost their third straight.

The Penguins had been 6-0-1 in the past seven games between the teams.

Jarry stopped 36 shots for Pittsburgh.

The Penguins took a 1-0 lead at 12:23 of the first.

Defenseman Juuso Riikola, playing in his first game of the season after being the odd man out, wove down the right side while fending off New Jersey's Yegor Sharangovich before throwing the puck from deep to the front of the net. Aston-Reese got off a shot, which Bernier stopped, and Heinen scored on the short rebound.

Johnsson tied it with 36.2 seconds left in the first when his pass from the right circle for Dawson Mercer in front went in off the skate of Pittsburgh's Evan Rodrigues, who was defending Mercer.

The Penguins got a power play late in the second, but that backfired when Vesey scored the second short-handed goal of his career. He tipped the puck away from Pittsburgh's John Marino near the right point for a breakaway and slid a backhander under Jarry's pads for a 2-1 Devils lead.

McGinn tied it 2-2 at 2:02 of the third. Teddy Blueger, from the right corner, fed McGinn in front for a high shot past Bernier.

--Field Level Media