• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Elias, Parise lift Devils past Penguins

Nov 13, 2007 - 4:01 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- There was no milestone victory, but Monday's end result was still favorable for the New Jersey Devils.

Patrik Elias and Zach Parise each had a goal and an assist as the Devils defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2, in a battle of Atlantic Division rivals.

New Jersey goaltender Kevin Weekes got the start instead of three-time Vezina Trophy winner Martin Brodeur, who remains stuck on 499 career victories.

Weekes played well, recording 23 saves for the Devils, who leapfrogged the Penguins in the standings. Pittsburgh, which has lost four straight and six of its last seven games, is now in the basement of the division.

"Every game (Weekes has) played in, he's played well and tonight he played well for us again," New Jersey coach Brent Sutter said. "That's what we need. He played well and stayed sharp because he works very hard in practice."

With the game tied at 2-2 with 5:23 remaining in the third period, Elias accepted a feed from Brian Gionta at the doorstep and banged home the rebound for the go-ahead goal.

"I felt good out there tonight," said Elias, who is three goals shy of 250 for his career. "Sometimes it's hard to stick with it. You want to do well. I felt like I was patient with the puck tonight at the right times, and I was able to get a big goal that gave us an opportunity to win."

Travis Zajac opened the scoring just 4:40 into the first period.

Parise gained possession of the puck in the left corner and fed Zajac at the left faceoff circle. Zajac calmly wristed the puck past goaltender Dany Sabourin to give New Jersey an early 1-0 advantage.

Parise doubled the Devils' edge by scoring his fifth goal of the season nearly six minutes later.

With New Jersey on the power play, Gionta sent a cross-slot pass to Parise, who fired the puck into the net for his 50th career goal.

"We bounced back after those two goals and played really good," Sabourin said. "It's just too bad that one turnover cost us the game at the end."

Sidney Crosby halved the deficit just 26 seconds into the second period.

Crosby, who has at least one point in 17 consecutive games, scored his 10th goal of the season, taking a pass from Ryan Malone, going to the net and beating Weekes to put the Penguins on the board.

"They do a great job of holding the lead, but you still take a few shifts just to get it back," Crosby said. "(The power play) gave us a chance to climb back."

While on the power play, Evgeni Malkin scored his seventh goal of the season midway through the third period to level the contest.

With the Penguins on a power play, Malkin accepted a feed from defenseman Sergei Gonchar and blasted a shot from the right faceoff circle which beat a screened Weekes to tie the game at 2-2.

Sabourin had 18 saves for Pittsburgh, which had beaten New Jersey, 5-0, last week.

"That was in the back of our minds," said New Jersey's Dainius Zubrus, who earned an assist on Zajac's goal. "They embarrassed us in our building. We wanted to get a win in their building."