Hall Strikes With Late Shorthanded Goal, Devils Win in Montreal

Nico Hischier and Taylor Hall acted as the Devils’ one-two punch in their 2-1 victory in Montreal. Photo: The Canadian Press (downloaded from TSN.ca)

The Devils are inching closer and closer to that elusive playoff spot. Tonight, they came away with a close one in Montreal, defeating the Canadiens 2-1 on a late Taylor Hall shorthanded goal.

The Devils now stand with four as the magic number: any combination of four points lost by the Florida Panthers (who were idle toinght) or won by the Devils will get them in. Florida does have two games in hand, but they come against teams like Nashville and Boston as well as Buffalo and Carolina. Not easy sledding for them, or for the Devils for that matter. The Devils just need to put their head down and go about their business and things will fall into place.

But first, tonight’s game. Some injury news to begin: Kyle Palmieri, who was clipped by an errant Andy Greene stick last night and was cut. The Devils wanted to take all precautions with him so he did not travel with the team to Montreal, however he was flown in once he was cleared and good to go. He wanted to play and was eager to be in the lineup. Also, some other good news as Marcus Johansson was cleared to play and taken off of injured reserve today. He was a healthy scratch for this game, along with Jimmy Hayes, Drew Stafford, Brian Gibbons and Damon Severson, as the coaching staff want to make sure he’s just right to get in. He did travel with the team to Montreal.

With Gibbons out, Jesper Bratt slotted back in at forward and with Severson out, Ben Lovejoy was back in on the blue line. Palmieri played on a line with Pavel Zacha and Michael Grabner while Patrick Maroon moved up to the top line with Nico Hischier and Hall.

In net, Keith Kinkaid made his third back-to-back start in as many weeks. He made 25 saves on 26 shots and was again brilliant at times. Opposing him was Carey Price, who tied Jacques Plante on the Canadiens’ all-time games-played list with 556. He was also fantastic for them, stopping 30 of 32 shots.

Special teams played a huge role in this one, as the referees certainly did not put the whistles away. The Devils ended the night 0-for-5 on the man advantage, with 11 power play shots. They also scored on their only shorthanded shot of the night, which we will get into in more detail later. Montreal was 1-for-4 on the power play with nine shots.

The Habs are on pace to finish with the fewest points by a Montreal team since the NHL went to an 82 game schedule in 1995-96. The Devils pushed the pace for most of the game, but things looked bad early on as Montreal got on the board first. It was the power play goal, scored at 19:51 of the first when Kinkaid drew a tripping penalty. Travis Zajac and Grabner were on a shorthanded 2-on-1 and Grabner’s pass was blocked, allowing Montreal to take the puck up the other way. Daniel Carr buried one from Arturi Lehkonen and Mike Reilly then.

But the Devils used their coach’s challenge, claiming offsides. The review was inconclusive to the linesmen who watched the replay, and, thus the call on the ice stood. It was a good goal and New Jersey was assessed a delay of game penalty. This was the first time coach John Hynes had tried to challenge for offsides against an opponent, but the Devils were right back on the penalty kill. Plus, they were down 1-0, the first time this season the Devils had trailed the Habs in regulatioin according to Deb Placey of MSG+.

The Devils had their chances to break through, but it was not until the third period that things would begin to click for them.

First, they tied things up 26 seconds into the third stanza. Nico Hischier scored from Sami Vatanen and Kyle Palmieri to even things up at one. Hall won a board battle in the far corner, pushing it towards Palmieri, who quickly wound it around the boards to Vatanen at the near point. He fired a quick one and Hischier, who was camped out in the slot, was able to get a stick on it and redirect it by Price.

The game was knotted up and for the next few minutes, it became the Nico Hischier show. He began by coming in on a breakaway midway through the third. Price stopped him as Nico elected to shoot instead of deking. A few minutes later, Nico would clang one off of the iron on another glorious chance.

But the game winner was set up by a penalty, or rather two penalties. Not to the Canadiens, but to the Devils. At the 13:45 mark of the third, the Devils were given a bench minor for too many men on the ice. That would be served by Hall (which would turn out to be a brilliant move on Hynes’ part). A little over a minute later, at 14:53, Lovejoy was called for cross checking Brendan Gallagher on a play in front of Keith Kinkaid’s net.

The Habs would have 52 seconds of 5-on-3 power play time and it looked like the game hung in the balance. The Devils would kill off the too many men penalty with Zajac blocking one final 5-on-3 shot by Montreal. He calmly gathered the puck and saw Hall coming out of the box. He saucered a pass directly to him, springing Hall for a breakaway. All alone in on Price, Hall beat him stick side to put the Devils up 2-1.

It was a well-timed play by both Zajac and Hall, and a nice one. Credit to the Devils’ PK unit for keeping the puck out of their own net. It was also a smart move by Hynes. Having a choice of who to put in the box for the bench minor allowed him to get his best offensive player, who does not generally kill penalties anyway, a jump start to come out of the box on a break. Zajac timed the block and pass so well and Hall was there to finish.

The goal came at 15:53 of the third with the only assist to Zajac. It was shorthanded, so the Devils still had the Lovejoy penalty to kill off, which they would.

With that shorty, the Devils notched their 12th shorthanded goal of the season, taking over the lead in the NHL.

Price would be pulled with about a minute left in the game, while Montreal was killing off a Nicolas Deslauriers slashing penalty, but were unable to tie things up. The Devils came away with points 92 and 93, putting them one behind the Flyers for the first wild card spot and seven ahead of the Panthers.

Statistically, the Devils won 47-percent of the game’s faceoffs and out shot Montreal 32-26. They were out hit 40-18 by the Habs, but the Devils had more blocked shots with 17 to Montreal’s 15.

Greene led the Devils in ice time with 23:15 (inlcuding 45 seconds of power play time and 4:50 on the PK). He narrowly edged Vatanen, who had 23:06 of ice time. Vatanen did lead in shots on goal with seven, while Stefan Noesen and Zacha led in hits with three each. Greene and Mirco Mueller led the team in blocked shots with three apiece while Grabner, Lovejoy and Vatanen each had one takeaway.

So, next up, the Devils take on their rivals, the Rangers, Tuesday. While the Rangers are long out of the playoff race – having been eliminated the night the Devils beat the Hurricanes at home – you can bet that New York will be looking to play spoiler against the Devils. This will not be an easy one, but if the Devils come away with the two points, it will be very much worth it.

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