NEWARK, N.J. -- The story line changes every time. A little, anyway.

The ending never does.

It hasn't since the first time the Penguins played New Jersey back in October, when the Devils kicked off a winning streak against them that swelled to five with a 3-1 victory at the Prudential Center Friday night.

The victory boosted New Jersey to within two points of the first-place Penguins in the Atlantic Division and puts it in position to sweep the season series when the teams meet again Wednesday.

Questions about whether the Devils had gotten inside the Penguins' head began after New Jersey won the first three meetings, all at Mellon Arena. By now, it might be more reasonable to ask whether the Devils own the property rights to everything between the Penguins' ears.

Not that the Penguins ever would agree that their ability to defeat the Devils is an issue worth pondering.

"I don't think you ever wonder, to be honest," center Sidney Crosby said. "If you wonder, that's asking to lose. I don't care if they beat us 14 in a row, the next one, we'd expect to win."

As they had 24 hours earlier in a 4-3 overtime loss in Carolina, the Penguins did a lot of things well.

They outshot New Jersey. Snuffed all four Devils power plays, including one that lasted five minutes. Denied Devils left winger Ilya Kovalchuk, one of the game's most feared goal-scorers, on a penalty shot.

All very impressive. None nearly enough to alter the outcome of the game.

Give Devils goalie Martin Brodeur much of the blame for that. You know, the guy who's losing the edge on his Hall of Fame game, the one who has been mortal more often than magical this season.

The one who, uh, stopped 34 of the 35 shots the Penguins threw at him Friday night, being beaten only by Crosby during a two-on-one break at 2:25 of the first period.

Now, it could be that Brodeur is slipping, that he isn't the utterly dominant presence he was for so many years. The Penguins just don't have any firsthand evidence of it.

"You don't go into a game expecting him to not play well," Penguins defenseman Mark Eaton said. "He's a world-class goalie, and he gets up for every game.

"And I'm sure he gets up a little extra when he sees Pittsburgh."

Devils defenseman Andy Greene appeared to be running on a little extra adrenaline Friday night, as well. He set up the Devils' first goal by bouncing a shot off the lively boards behind the Penguins' net and onto the stick of teammate Patrik Elias.

Greene then got the winner at 2:06 of the third, driving a slap shot over the glove of Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury from the top of the right circle to break a 1-1 tie.

Fleury couldn't raise his glove in time to stop Greene's shot; he didn't get a chance to use it stop the insurance goal Kovalchuk scored at 9:59 of the third, when Devils forward Travis Zajac pushed Fleury's glove out of the path of Kovalchuk's shot just as the puck was nearing the net.

"I'll watch what I say," Fleury said. "I guess the ref didn't see it. You can clearly see on the replay that he pushed my glove away from the puck, and that's interference."

Zajac didn't disagree.

"I got my stick in his glove when he was trying to make the save," he said. "I was just going to the net and my stick got stuck in his glove."

Referees Bill McCreary and Greg Kimmerly called nothing on Zajac, which perplexed the Penguins almost as much as the major penalty assessed to forward Craig Adams for a hit on former teammate Martin Skoula in the first period. Adams hit him into the glass behind the New Jersey goal line a split-second after play was stopped for a high-sticking violation.

Skoula got a cut near his right eye, Adams a major penalty and game misconduct.

"A minor would have surprised me," Adams said. "I heard a few different explanations [for why it was called a major]. The first linesman told me it was an icing, which it obviously wasn't.

"The second linesman told me it was a high-sticking call which, if you watch the replay, I'm about 10 or 15 feet past the linesman before he makes the signal that it's a high stick, so I have no way of knowing that it's a high stick. So, as far as I was concerned, it was just a regular forecheck.

"And someone [on the ice] told me that I jumped and left my feet, which you can clearly see that I didn't. So I'm baffled."

Just as his teammates seem to be when trying to figure out how to beat the Devils.

Penguins Plus, a blog by Dave Molinari and Shelly Anderson, is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.