Feb 24, 2003 4 min read

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Few teams are as good as the New Jersey Devils in coming from behind to win. They just wish they wouldn’t have to keep doing it so often. Joe Nieuwendyk scored midway through the third period for his 1,000th NHL career point and Scott Gomez put New Jersey ahead 37 seconds later as the Devils came back to beat Pittsburgh 4-3 Sunday.

New Jersey overcame deficits of 1-0 and 3-2 while rallying to win in the third period for the second straight game.

Still, the Devils’ insistence on falling behind so often worried coach Pat Burns enough that he spent the first 15 minutes of practice Saturday berating his team for lapses in a 3-2 win Friday over Boston.

The Devils have won five of the 19 games they’ve trailed entering the third period and are 9-12-0-4 when an opponent scores first, uncommonly high success rates. This time, they led 2-1 after the second period, then fell behind in the third before rebounding yet again.

“We’re probably pushing our luck a little bit, if we’re counting on that,” goalie Martin Brodeur said. “I don’t think we want to do this all the time. But, right now, it’s working.”

If Burns was unhappy the Devils had to scramble yet again, he didn’t show it. Asked if he was concerned about playing from behind again, he said, “No.”

The Devils made it 3-3 when Nieuwendyk became the 65th player in NHL history to reach 1,000 points, picking up the puck in the neutral zone and, skating through two Penguins, snapping off a shot from the high slot.

“That was a great goal,” Penguins star Mario Lemieux said.

Nieuwendyk is glad he no longer must think about getting his 500th goal or 1,000th point, milestones he’s surpassed this season.

“I’ve kept getting chances, and some of them have gone into the net,” he said.

The momentum now back on its side thanks to Nieuwendyk’s goal, New Jersey regained the lead when rookie goalie Sebastien Caron couldn’t control a long slap shot that deflected to Gomez for an easy tap-in.

“It went off a foot and a leg and (I got) a little tap like that,” said Gomez, who had gone 10 games without a goal.

The goal came not long after Burns shuffled his lines, moving Gomez off Patrik Elias’ line.

Lemieux and Martin Straka each had a goal and an assist and Rico Fata scored for the second straight game, but the Penguins lost for the second time on a five-game home stand that ends Tuesday against Los Angeles.

The Penguins wanted to get seven or eight points out of the homestand to stay on the fringe of the Eastern Conference race, but now can get no more than six.

“Every game is important for us and, when you lose, it makes it that much tougher,” Lemieux said.

The Devils, beating the Penguins for the sixth time in their last seven meetings, led 2-1 entering the third period – seemingly a certainty they would win, given their 25-0-2-1 record when leading after two periods.

Jeff Friesen, scoring for the fourth straight game and Turner Stevenson got goals 1:39 apart in the second period after Lemieux had scored for Pittsburgh.

But the Penguins, only 1-21-1-3 when trailing after two periods, got to Brodeur for two quick goals and a 3-2 lead.

Fata, who also scored in a 2-1 overtime win Saturday against St. Louis, tied it less than three minutes into the third period on a break with Jan Hrdina. Straka then put Pittsburgh ahead with a wrist shot from the high slot after Lemieux got a rush going by controlling a wildly bouncing puck.

But the Penguins didn’t benefit from any power plays as Pittsburgh was called for the only three penalties, with the first not coming until late in the second period.

Penguins rookie Tomas Surovy played another strong game although he didn’t score, setting up the Lemieux and Straka goals.