Devils 3

Bruins 2

These Devils, the ones without Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer, are building a bulldog reputation. Alexander Mogilny added his personal touch to that last night, even spicing it with drama.

Instead of nursing a possible second concussion, Mogilny returned from the dressing room to whip home the winner with 31.4 seconds left, giving the Devils a 3-2 comeback victory over the Bruins at the Meadowlands last night.

“It feels a little better,” Mogilny said. “We didn’t play well but we fought our way through it.”

It wasn’t pretty, easy or overwhelming, but the Devils will bring their first three-game winning streak of the season into Philadelphia tonight because they’ve become a determined bunch.

“It’s going to take a little time, but we’re playing with a different attitude and a different edge,” said John Madden, who won the vital offensive faceoff from Joe Thornton to feed Mogilny in the Bobby Hull trigger spot. As if diagramed, Mogilny accepted Madden’s left faceoff delivery and fired the winner past Andrew Raycroft.

“I was trying to go to our sniper, Colin White,” Madden said. “We got pretty lucky. It squirted out to Alex.”

Madden had a hand in the tying goal earlier in the third, as the Devils erased Boston’s two-goal lead. But it was the littlest bulldog, Brian Gionta, who started the comeback with his 16th – and sixth in five games.

The Bruins, who had lost two straight and were 1-7-1 in their previous nine, took the lead on the power play when Patrice Bergeron’s left circle slap eluded Martin Brodeur at 8:49 of the first.

Sergei Samsonov made it 2-0 30 seconds into the second on a controversial goal. From the left circle, Samsonov held the puck, not shooting until Joe Thornton was bumping Brodeur, nudged into the goalie by Richard Matvichuk.

Gionta pulled the Devils within one at 13:14, rebounding White’s point shot for his 16th of the season. Scott Gomez stretched his point streak to eight games with an assist, and Gionta’s went to five.

Jay Pandolfo was credited with tying the score 5:27 into the third, when Madden’s left circle 2-on-1 rebound went in off him as he was being shoved toward Andrew Raycroft’s net.

That set the stage for Mogilny, who missed four games with a concussion earlier this month. He had already left the game at 3:55 of the third after being hit in the face by the elbow and shoulder of hulking Bruin defenseman Hal Gill.

Scoring that winner eased that pain.

mark.everson@nypost.com