NEWARK, N.J. -- There was nothing enjoyable about watching the Ottawa Senators play the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.

Just ask the players that won the game.

"It was probably not the most fun game to watch," Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson said.

"Tonight, there wasn't a lot given up by either team early, the shot totals were down," Senators defenseman Dion Phaneuf said.

"It was a tight game on both sides," Senators goaltender Mike Condon said. "I'm sure it wasn't fun to watch for the fans."

It wasn't entertaining in every way imaginable for the crowd at Prudential Center, who watched the Senators smother the Devils 3-0 to move within four points of first place in the Atlantic Division.

For nearly 40 minutes, neither team gave an inch and there was barely a dangerous scoring chance. But Phaneuf scored a power-play goal with 1:09 remaining in the second period to break the scoreless tie and Karlsson sealed the win by scoring with 3:58 remaining in the third period.

Kyle Turris added an empty-net goal with 1:37 and Condon made 21 saves for the shutout.

But the game was just about over when Phaneuf beat Cory Schneider with the help of traffic in front, as the Devils managed just six shots in the third period.

"Whether we're in the first or the third, we talk about playing the way we have to play," Phaneuf said of the Senators' defense-first mentality. "I know that's kind of a cliche, but it's the honest truth. When you look at our team, it's not a secret. Teams know how we play. We clog the neutral zone and we live off of turnovers and counter-attack.

"When we do that, we don't give up a whole lot, and we try to continue to do that whether we're up or down. We want to stay to our structure and we feel if we do that over the game, odds are in our favor."

The Senators improved to 19-2-1 when leading after two periods; the Devils fell to 6-19-2 when trailing after two periods.

"If you look at the game, going into the third period, they scored on the power play and we didn't," Devils coach John Hynes said. "We go into the third period. We have no problem getting through (the Senators defense) over the first two periods. We didn't stick with it long enough and we got frustrated.

"They defend in a good way. The lesson out of this ... these are difficult games. They're tight games. This is the time of year when that happens."

The Devils remained five points out of a wild-card spot with 25 games to play.

Schneider turned aside 32 of 34 shots but wasn't happy with his play, mostly because he felt he should have stopped Karlsson's long blast that ended any comeback hope for the Devils.

"It was tight game, a well-played game by both teams, and Cory did a great job in there for us to keep the game tight," Hynes said. "We got to get him one (goal). We got to get him two (goals). That's where our focus needs to go."

The focus for the Senators is on themselves, although they are nipping at the heels of the division-leading Canadiens, who have a four-point lead but have played three more games than the Senators. The Canadiens (.603) hold a small edge in points percentage on the Senators (.600), but Karlsson isn't ready to say the Canadiens are on his radar.

"As of right now, down the stretch here, we've got to take care of ourselves," Karlsson said. "We can't really focus on what other teams do. I feel like we've done a good job to put ourselves in the position we're in. We're happy where we are.

"But again, we're here to win games. We're going to take care of our part. As long as we do our job, I think we're going to be pretty satisfied."

NOTES: Senators RW Curtis Lazar, who has zero goals in 29 games this season, was back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch the past four games. He replaced RW Chris Neil, who has one goal in 48 games. ... Senators RW Tom Pyatt played his 400th career NHL game. ... Devils RW Beau Bennett was back in the lineup after missing nine games with a lower-body injury. He replaced LW Joe Blandisi. ... The Devils placed D Kyle Quincey (upper body) on injured reserve. He has missed four games but could return as early as Saturday when the Devils host the New York Islanders.