Mike Cammalleri got the Devils going, and Cory Schneider carried New Jersey from there.
Cammalleri scored twice in the first period, Schneider made 36 saves and the Devils beat the Ottawa Senators 3-0 on Wednesday night.
"We got off to a good start which is what we wanted to do," Devils coach John Hynes said. "We knew coming in this was one of the top-five offensive teams in the league in goals scored, so I thought our net-front defense was good."
Andrew Hammond made 18 saves. The Senators lost for the seventh time in 10 games despite outshooting New Jersey 28-11 over the final two periods.
"It's tough, but I thought we played a pretty decent game," Senators forward Mark Stone said. "We got a lot of pucks to the net, but we didn't get a lot of traffic to the net. (Schneider) didn't have to make enough high-quality saves."
The Devils jumped one point ahead of the Senators and into the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with 45 points.
Lee Stempniak had a short-handed empty-net goal with 16 seconds left.
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The Senators started the second period on the power play for 45 seconds and had two additional power plays during the period, including one after an embellishment penalty on Bobby Farnham. The winger flew through the air and then slid several feet clutching his knee trying to draw a penalty from captain Erik Karlsson.
"I don't think that was a fair call to be honest, but you just have to take your medicine and the team did a good job killing it off," said Farnham, who also had a first period fight with Max McCormick.
"Any time you put your team down it's disappointing but the ref saw it how he saw it. I know better than anyone what happened on that play and whether there was any penalty on the play I was just trying to avoid contact."
Cammalleri scored during the second of three New Jersey power plays in the first 10:30 of the game. He rushed down the right side and beat Hammond to the short side off the post at 9:11.
Cammalleri got another goal from almost the same spot when he turned and one-timed a turnover just between the post and Hammond's arm with 1:52 left.
"I've got to make those saves, especially the way the game went, I've got to be better on those," Hammond said.
