With the New Jersey Devils’ Karl Stollery in the penalty box on a five-minute major for boarding, the Montreal Canadiens struck for two goals en route to a 3-1 win Friday night.
Shea Weber and Max Pacioretty scored just 38 seconds apart on the power play.
“Special teams mean so much coming down the stretch and heading into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, so trying to get some chemistry going and help the team win a game is a big thing,” Weber said.
Alex Galchenyuk also scored for the Habs.
“Whenever one guy had the puck, we wanted to give them close support and be more involved and not too spread out,” Galchenyuk said. “When we had an opportunity to shoot, we would take a shot.”
Keith Kinkaid made 23 saves for the Devils who saw their three-game win streak come to an end.
Al Montoya got the start for the Habs and faced only 17 shots in the win.
“I’ll take this any night; your team is playing fantastic in front of you and halfway through the game it’s 1-1, so all I’m really focused on is making that next save,” Montoya said. “Maybe it’s experience and the games I’ve played, but these guys did a phenomenal job. I just wanted to make that next save.”
WATCH: All Canadiens vs. Devils highlights
Steven Santini was the lone goal scorer for the Devils who dropped to 19-19-9 on the season.
“We’ve been struggling over the past couple weeks with our defensive game,” Weber said. “We made a point to really lock things up but try not to take away from our offense.”
The Devils had little room to operate throughout the game as the Habs limited time and space for New Jersey to establish any kind of rhythm.
“I think if you look at the contrast, when [Montreal] was in our zone, they made strong plays. Their forwards were tenacious and we had to be a little harder in those areas,” — Devils head coach John Hynes said of his club’s inability to set up.
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