Sam Montembeault made 38 saves and the Montreal Canadiens had five different goal-scorers to pull away for a 5-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils Tuesday night in Newark, N.J.
Justin Barron scored early in the first period before Johnathan Kovacevic and Nick Suzuki scored 73 seconds apart early in the second. Rem Pitlick scored in the third period as Montreal halted New Jersey’s six-game home winning streak.
Mike Matheson scored an empty-net goal with 3:47 remaining and added an assist as Montreal bounced back nicely from opening its four-game trip with lopsided losses to the Carolina Hurricanes and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Jesper Bratt and Dawson Mercer scored for the Devils, who dropped to 15-4-3 over their past 22 games and lost for the third time in the past 13 meetings (10-2-1) with Montreal. Jack Hughes collected a pair of assists.
New Jersey goalie Vitek Vanecek took his first regulation loss since Dec. 28 against Boston by allowing four goals on 17 shots. He had been 12-0-1 in his previous 13 games, which was one shy of the team record for a point streak by a goalie set by Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur on three occasions.
Barron opened the scoring at 3:54 shortly after Hughes stumbled and lost the puck to defenseman Matheson. After Hughes turned it over, Barron ripped a wrist shot from the right circle by Vanecek’s stick.
The Devils tied it nearly 10 minutes later on Bratt’s blast from between the circles in the middle of the slot after getting a pass from Hughes.
Kovacevic gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead 2:29 into the second by getting a pass from Jesse Ylonen and sending the puck into the vacated left side of the net. Suzuki extended the lead to 3-1 on the next shift with a blast from the top of the right circle that sailed by Vanecek’s glove.
About a minute after Montembeault made a right pad save on Bratt, Pitlick got a cross-ice pass from Evgenii Dadonov and from the right side of the crease lifted the puck over Vanecek with 14:47 remaining in the third.
Mercer made it 4-2 on a power play with 8:02 remaining by pushing a rebound of a Miles Wood shot into the net while stationed at the right side.
–Field Level Media
