In Newark, the Montreal Canadiens surprised the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night with a 5-2 loss.
Sam Montembeault made 38 saves in the Montreal win.
“I felt good and was seeing the puck well,” Montembeault said. “We blocked a lot of shots (28) and that helped. I remember giving up two breakaway goals on my blocker side [in a 6-2 loss at the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday] and I worked on that a lot the last few practices. I’m happy to get the stops tonight.”
The Canadiens improved to 24-29-4.
Montreal grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first period on a marker from Justin Barron.
Jesper Bratt tied it, 1-1, at 13:48 of the first.
In the middle frame, the Habs connected twice to take a 3-1 lead on New Jersey.
Johnathan Kovacevic gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead at 2:29.
“We were really sacrificing, bringing a lot of that energy,” Kovacevic said. “I feel like they’re a really great team, they’re fast and really on you, but they kind of gave us some Grade A chances and we capitalized, stuck to our game plan and took advantage of our chances.”
Just 1:13 later, Nick Suzuki pushed the lead to 3-1.
“I think as coaches you’re trying to convince them to do things a certain way,” St. Louis said, “and when they do it and get rewarded, it’s a lot easier to convince them through the success we’re having. It’s a buy-in and we have that.”
New Jersey dropped to 37-15-5, and had their six-game active home win streak snapped in the loss.
“We gave up an abnormal amount of good chances,” said New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff. “It just looked like fatigue. It looked like the team was flat this morning. We played a lot of hockey. I’m not going to sit here and make excuses. … We’ve had a couple of guys that have played through illness. We need to freshen the team up and focus on the next game.”
Montreal pushed the lead to 4-1 early in the third on a strike from Rem Pitlick.
“I feel like we finished plays,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “I talked about not only finishing plays offensively, but to finish plays defensively. I think the past couple of games, when we got scored upon, we didn’t finish the job. Tonight, I felt like we did that.
“We were able to block shots and not give them crazy Grade A chances.”
New Jersey got one back off the power play with eight minutes left on the clock on a marker from Dawson Mercer .
“I mean, he made the saves exactly when they needed it,” Devils captain Nico Hischier said. “And even there in the second, when they score right away, and we got a break where he makes the save. It’s definitely a big game from him.”
Montreal sealed the win with an empty-net goal from Mike Matheson at 16:13 for the 5-2 final score.
“I had a game with two breakaways this year, but three, I’d have to look back,” Montembeault said.
Vitek Vanecek made 13 saves in the New Jersey loss.
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