Milan Lucic scored two goals, and Niklas Svedberg earned his second NHL shutout behind three periods of stifling Boston defense as the Bruins beat the New Jersey Devils 3-0 on Thursday night.
Svedberg faced only 14 shots. Boston held New Jersey to three in the opening period and four in the second, three coming on a late power play that did nothing to spark the Devils.
David Krejci and Torey Krug assisted on Lucic’s power-play goal with 1:10 left in the first, and Carl Soderberg added an unassisted goal 8:31 into the second for the only scoring until Lucic tapped in an empty-netter with 12 seconds remaining.
Patrice Bergeron, who scored the winner Wednesday in Boston’s overtime victory at Pittsburgh, and Chris Kelly assisted on the final goal. It was the 700th career game for both.
Svedberg made his first start since a 6-2 loss at Columbus on Dec. 27, and didn’t get much of a challenge.
New Jersey followed its three-shot first period by stumbling through the second. The Devils had just one shot in the period until Michael Ryder was stopped by Svedberg while being taken down by Daniel Paille with 5:17 left. New Jersey went on its only power play of the game, but continued to struggle offensively.
Cory Schneider, who grew up outside of Boston and played at Boston College, made 41 saves.
Schneider was sharp early and stopped Soderberg twice from the slot to keep the Devils within two goals. Boston had 11 shots in the first eight minutes
NOTES: New Jersey LW Mike Cammalleri also played in his 700th NHL game. … Boston LW Loui Eriksson was out with an upper-body injury. He missed his first game of the season. … The Bruins’ 43 shots were two shy of their season high recorded in a 5-2 win over Detroit on Dec. 29. That was Boston’s last game not to go into overtime before Thursday.