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Canadiens Come Back to Deal Devils OT Loss

The Devils hosted the Montreal Canadiens tonight hoping to pick up a win to keep themselves in the Eastern Conference playoff race, a race that they are quickly falling out of with their current losing streak. And while they did pick up a point, they were unable to gain two as they fell to Montreal 4-3 in overtime. The Habs battled back from not one, but two two goal deficits in getting the victory.

It was Pride Night at the Rock tonight, as the Devils celebrated the LGBT community as all teams in the National Hockey League will or have done this season. It is part of the Hockey is for Everyone initiative. The team used special rainbow colored tape on their sticks during warmups and special t-shirts were sold in the arena.

In some roster moves, Pavel Zacha was put on injured reserve retroactive to February 21 due to his concussion diagnosis. Blake Coleman was recalled from Albany to fill in for him. PA Parenteau was also scratched, as he was injured when he was hit with a shot in the Rangers game, he finished that game but sat out this one. He is listed as day-to-day.

Another scratch for the Devils was Kyle Quincey, who was expecting to play when he got to the rink, but was told by General Manager Ray Shero that he was being held out because the Devils may be trading him prior to the March 1 trade deadline. The team did not want to risk him getting injured if they think they could deal him. Joe Blandisi slotted in for him. Seth Helgeson was the other healthy scratch for New Jersey while Brian Flynn, Michael McCarron and the newly-acquired from Dallas, Jordie Benn sat for Montreal.

The goaltending matchup saw Cory Schneider make 29 saves on 33 Canadiens shots for New Jersey. He had a .879 save percentage for the game. The Devils saw Al Montoya who made 34 saves on 37 shots for a .919 save percentage. The Devils have not seen Carey Price since the incident at Bell Centre when he pummeled Kyle Palmieri with his blocker. Price did sit on the Habs bench this time, instead of hiding in the tunnel. Montoya does not really see a lot of ice time, as his last win came on January 20 at Prudential Center against these Devils.

One other Devils injury occurred late in the first period, as Jacob Josefson was hurt then and did not return to the game. There was no word on what exactly happened to him yet.

For the Canadiens, if they were to lose in regulation to the Devils and the Senators beat the Lightning, Ottawa would take over the top spot in the Atlantic Division. Neither ended up happening, so the Atlantic Division standings remain the same for the time being.

The Devils got on the board first, scoring with just 19 seconds left in the first period. It came when Michael Cammalleri brought good pressure on the forecheck, getting Montreal defenseman Shea Weber to turn the puck over to Travis Zajac. Zajac then passed to Palmieri, who was cutting in towards the slot. He shot, beating Montoya to make it 1-0 Devils.

There were no goals in the second period, but Taylor Hall did have a partial breakaway late in the period that Montoya just got a piece of to put it over the crossbar. The Devils still had the 1-0 lead heading into the third period, and New Jersey is was 17-0-5 heading into this game when leading going into the final frame.

The Devils would finally double their lead at just 2:38 into the third. Joe Blandisi gave the puck to John Moore at the far point. Moore fired the puck, beating Montoya five hole to give the Devils a 2-0 lead. Damon Severson had the secondary assist.

But in what would become a trend for the night, the Canadiens got the goal back just 11 seconds later. Alexander Radulov scored from Alexei Emelin and Jeff Petry at 2:49 to cut the New Jersey lead in half.

The Devils scored again at the 7:54 mark of the third to make it 3-1. This was set up when Coleman used his speed to steal the puck, split two Montreal defensemen and drew a hooking penalty on Phillip Danault at 7:48. It took just six seconds into the power play for Travis Zajac to win the offensive zone draw, get it back to the left point. It was sent across to Palmieri at the right point who shot on the net. Miles Wood tipped it on goal, and his rebound was gathered by Zajac, who backhanded it by Montoya to make give the Devils back a two goal lead. Both teams went 1-for-2 on the power play and the Devils power play has produced a goal in 9 of their last 11 games.

But this two goal lead would only last 43 seconds. Max Pacioretty scored his 30th from Nathan Beaulieu and Alexander Radulov to make it 3-2 Devils. That was the beginning of Montreal’s comeback. They would score three unanswered to ultimately win the game.

First, late in the period, Montoya made a big save on Stefan Noesen one-on-one immediately after Cory made a big save at the other end.

Montoya was then pulled with about 1:40 left in the game. Taylor Hall made a nice play as the Devils cleared, beating the Montreal player back to negate an icing call. But it was for naught as Pacioretty scored his second of the game with just under a minute left in the game from Weber and Radulov. The Habs had erased another two goal deficit to tie things up at three and force overtime.

The extra period started out good for the Devils, as John Moore had a nice end-to-end rush to try to end things for New Jersey. He did not score and eventually, Damon Severson was called for an accidental hook to set up a Canadiens 4-on-3 power play.

With the extra skater, Alex Galchenyuk finished things for Montreal, scoring from Weber and Radulov. Amazingly, Radulov had factored into all four of the Canadiens’ goals on the night.

Now, the Devils have to put their second straight OT loss behind them as they travel to DC to take on the very powerful Washington Capitals. And the Caps got even more powerful as news broke as the Devils-Canadiens game ended that the St. Louis Blues had sent star defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk to Washington. That game comes on Thursday, March 2 following the trade deadline. We will see what the Devils look like as they take on the Caps at the Verizon Center on Thursday night.

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Canadiens’ Power Play Sinks Devils

The Devils came in to their game against the Atlantic Division-leading Montreal Canadiens riding a modest three game winning streak. That streak, extended after a thrilling come-from-behind victory over the Minnesota Wild, came to an end tonight as a combination of sloppy play and a few calls against them led to a 3-1 Montreal win.

The Habs, who, like the Devils, are playing the front end of a back-to-back elected not to have a morning skate earlier today. This was partly in response to the back-to-back and due to injuries. The Devils will also be playing a back-to-back, as they have the Flyers tomorrow night.

The Devils lineup was much the same as it has been. Andy Greene and John Moore are still out with injuries, although Moore – who is suffering from concussion symptoms – did skate earlier today. The main differences were Cory Schneider and Jon Merrill being out with an illness. Cory was not feeling well and it was a noontime decision that he would not play tonight. Luke Gazdic and Sergey Kalinin were healthy scratches for New Jersey. Daniel Carr and Ryan Johnston were scratched for Montreal.

Karl Stollery and Blake Coleman, recent call ups from Albany who made their debuts for the Devils on the road trip, were making their Prudential Center debuts tonight. Both started the game for the Devils in a nice gesture by coach John Hynes.

Goaltending saw Keith Kinkaid start for the Devils since Schneider was out with an illness. He made 23 saves on 26 Canadiens shots. Starting for Montreal was Al Montoya, who made 16 saves on a paltry 17 Devils shots. Montoya last started and lost to New Jersey back in 2012, that is how good he has been against the Devils. Montreal’s All-Star goalie Carey Price spent the night in the tunnel behind the Habs’ bench. Speculation from the Devils’ announce team was that he just did not want to hear it from Devils fans after his attack on Kyle Palmieri a few weeks ago at the Bell Centre.

The Devils did not look good for the majority of the night, but they did get on the scoreboard first. That came at the 4 minute mark of the first period when PA Parenteau fired a shot from the near half wall. His rebound bounced out to Steven Santini who fired a seeing-eye shot that beat Montoya clean. Taylor Hall had the secondary assist. Toronto checked the goal to see if Hall or Travis Zajac tipped the puck in with a high stick. The replay showed that neither player touched the puck, let alone touched it with a high stick. It was a good goal, as the call on the ice stood. Santini’s shot beat Montoya clean to make the game 1-0 New Jersey.

But from there, the Canadiens took over. Or, more specifically, the Canadiens’ power play took over. At 4:46 of the first, Miles Wood took a slashing call against Alex Galchenyuk. He broke Galchenyuk’s stick, almost necessitating the slashing penalty. And Galchenyuk made them pay. He scored at 5:14 from Alexander Radulov and Nathan Beaulieu. That tied things up pretty quickly. The Devils had just three shots in the first period and had scored on one of them, but they took a penalty and let the Habs back into it. This would be a recurring theme throughout the night.

A scary moment in the first period as Beau Bennett lost his footing near the Montreal bench and went face first into the boards. He was okay, however, and did not leave the bench.

The second period featured no scoring, but did feature a few nice defensive plays by Blake Coleman and Jacob Josefson that stopped sure Montreal goals.

The turning point of the game came just 28 seconds into the third period. Nathan Beaulieu skated along the boards in the Devils’ zone and stopped, trying to reverse the play. As he suddenly stopped, Karl Stollery tried to finish his check. He did not stop in time and knocked Beaulieu down a few feet from the boards. He received a boarding call, which was the correct call. What was controversial was the fact that he was given a five minute major for boarding.

In the ensuing scrum that saw Beaulieu’s teammates come to his aid, Torrey Mitchell took a roughing minor against Stollery. So that left two minutes of four-on-four and then, when the Mitchell penalty expired, three minutes of 5-on-3 play.

Montreal immediately capitalized when Shea Weber scored his eleventh from Radulov and Galchenyuk at the 3:01 mark to make it 2-1 Canadiens. But Montreal was not done there. Because it was a major penalty, Stollery stayed in the penalty box for the remainder of the penalty, allowing the Canadiens to score at will.

And, sure enough, at 4:23, Max Pacioretty scored his 21st of the year from Galchenyuk and Radulov. Galchenyuk and Radulov each had three points (a goal and two assists for Galchenyuk and three assists for Radulov) on the night. Galchenyuk was named the first star of the game, Radulov the second and Weber the third star by attending media.

The Devils pulled Kinkaid with 2:33 left in the game and they did get some good chances in close on Montoya, but it was not enough. Time ran out and the Devils fell to the Habs 3-1.

Next up, the Devils travel down the New Jersey Turnpike to Philadelphia to play the Flyers. The team will not get a morning skate in tomorrow as the Villanova University basketball team has an afternoon game at the Wells Fargo Center (the Flyers skate at their practice facility). The Devils will hopefully use the time to rest and regroup, getting back on track. The majority of their final games are against Metropolitan Division foes, particularly the Penguins and the Flyers – both of which they see five times this season, as opposed to four for the other Metro teams. As John MacLean pointed out on the MSG+ postgame show, how they play against the Pens and the Flyers will go a long way to settling their post season fate. That begins tomorrow for the Devils.

On a side note, due to a previous commitment, I will be a little bit late on my post for tomorrow’s game. I will be recording the game and hope to have it up sometime by Sunday.