In home finale, Pens knock off the Devils

Photo by: Gene J. Puskar

AP

Photo

Pittsburgh Penguins' Jordan Staal, right, and New Jersey Devils' Mark Fayne work for position in from of Devils goalie Johan Hedberg of Sweden during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Pittsburgh Tuesday, April 5, 2011.

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Pascal Dupuis had two goals and the Pittsburgh Penguins moved closer to clinching home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs with a 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night.

Jordan Staal and Chris Kunitz also scored for the Penguins, who won their regular season home finale to move three points ahead of fifth-place Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference standings with two games to play. The Lightning lost 4-2 at Buffalo.

Pittsburgh has 102 points, one less than Atlantic Division-leading Philadelphia, which lost 5-2 at Ottawa on Tuesday. The Penguins remained three points behind conference-leading Washington, which won 3-2 in a shootout at Toronto.

David Steckel and Brian Rolston scored for the Devils, who were officially eliminated from playoff contention with their defeat to Montreal on Saturday.

New Jersey was shut out in its previous two road games, and the Penguins-Devils season series had featured a total of only 12 goals in the five previous games.

The teams had played to a scoreless tie until a shootout in their previous meeting 11 days earlier in Pittsburgh — a games in which there were four shots in the first period. The teams combined for 13 first-period shots Tuesday, including Staal’s 11th goal of the season.

Pittsburgh’s fourth power play goal in the past 21 games came with 2:23 left in the first — but it was hardly a traditional power-play goal. James Neal left the puck for Staal at the blue line, and Staal skated down the left wing, beat Mark Fraser to net and lifted the puck up over sprawling goalie Johan Hedberg.