By Ken Rappoport
Associated Press
Saturday, April 24, 1999; 5:19 p.m. EDT

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The Pittsburgh Penguins, playing without league-leading scorer Jaromir Jagr, put together a great all-around defensive game behind goaltender Tom Barrasso to beat the New Jersey Devils 4-1 Saturday and even their playoff series at one game apiece.

Jagr, the Penguins' team captain, was scratched right before game time because of a groin injury suffered in Thursday night's 3-1 loss to the Devils in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.

Jagr was listed as day-to-day by the Penguins, who hope their top player can return for Game 3 on Sunday in Pittsburgh.

The Penguins didn't seem to miss their star forward, generally regarded as the top one-on-one player in the NHL. Even without Jagr, they were a different team that finished 15 points behind the Eastern Conference leaders and lost four of five games to the Devils during the season and five straight counting the Game 1 loss.

Aleksey Morozov, Greg Andrusak, Martin Straka and Alexei Kovalev scored for Pittsburgh and the Penguins simply suffocated the Devils with a tight-checking defense that allowed few quality chances.

Barrasso stopped 25 shots before Dave Andreychuk finally scored for the Devils from in close with 8:19 left. Barrasso finished with 28 saves.

The Penguins' penalty killers played a big part, killing five New Jersey power plays. The Devils, No. 4 in the NHL on the power play during the regular season, have yet to score a goal with the man advantage on nine attempts in the series.

The Penguins took a 1-0 lead at 7:09 of the first period when Morozov scored on a rebound after Brad Werenka hit the goal post with a shot from the left circle.

The Penguins appeared to have scored a power-play goal 31 seconds into the second period, but Straka's goal was called off after a review showed that Morozov was in the crease.

Andrusak made it 2-0 at 3:19 of the second, scoring from the low slot with a quick shot after taking a great pass from Kip Miller behind the goal line. Straka then scored one that counted, beating Martin Brodeur in front at 12:55 after the Devils failed to clear the puck and German Titov at the side boards passed the puck to his teammate in front.

Kovalev put the Penguins ahead 4-0 when he scored at 1:41 of the third period on a deflection of Kevin Hatcher's shot from the right boards.