PITTSBURGH — Jake Guentzel tried to corral the puck, but it wasn’t quite cooperating. So as the Pittsburgh Penguins’ forward raced in on New Jersey goalie Mackenzie Blackwood in the middle of the second period on Friday night, Guentzel kept his stick on the ice and hoped for the best.

“It’s just kind of a cluster there when you lose a puck like that and you’re on a breakaway,” Guentzel said. “Just tried to get him to cheat over and it worked.”

As tends to happen when Guentzel is in close, particularly at home.

Guentzel managed to find enough control to deke from his forehand to his backhand and back again, getting Blackwood to bite in the process. Guentzel tapped the puck into the open net for his team-leading 11th goal of the season — and seventh at PPG Paints Arena — to give the Penguins all the momentum they would need in a 4-1 victory.

“We’re playing well,” Guentzel said. “I think our record might not show some games that we’ve played well in, but I think our top to bottom lineup, we’re just playing well and we’re filling spots and guys are stepping up big, so I think it’s been good.”

Guentzel has three goals and three assists during a four-game point streak that started shortly after the Penguins lost captain Sidney Crosby for at least six weeks following surgery to repair a sports hernia. Pittsburgh’s top line has kept rolling anyway as Guentzel, Rust and Evgeni Malkin have combined for eight goals and 12 assists in the five games since Crosby went down.

“I think they kind of feed off each other,” Penguins defenseman John Marino said. “They always kind of know where they are. They’re always in the right position.”

And they’re getting help. Marino and Jared McCann scored 25 seconds apart in the third period to chase Blackwood. Dominik Kahun added his sixth goal in 11 games as the Penguins snapped a four-game winless streak at home against New Jersey. Tristan Jarry trimmed his goals-against average to 1.81 by stopping 36 shots, weathering an early second-period surge from the Devils then coasting after Guentzel’s pretty move.

Taylor Hall scored his third of the season for the Devils. Blackwood made 30 saves before being removed in favor of Louis Domingue early in the third period after giving up goals on back to back shots.

“That one is not on Mackenzie,” New Jersey coach John Hynes said. “I mean, he kept us in the game in the first period. The pull was not regarding Mackenzie or the disappointment in him by any means.”

If the Penguins were drained following consecutive overtime losses to the streaking New York Islanders, it didn’t show. Pittsburgh carried play early and Kahun gave the Penguins the lead 7:51 into the first when linemate Dominik Simon created a turnover along the boards in the New Jersey zone and slipped the puck to Kahun. Kahun worked his way past Devils defenseman Mirco Mueller and flipped the puck past Blackwood’s stick to put Pittsburgh in front.