New Jersey 3, Montreal 2
When: 7:00 PM ET, Saturday, November 28, 2015
Where: Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec
Referees:
Francis Charron, Trevor Hanson
Linesmen:
Derek Amell, Ryan Galloway
Attendance:
21288
By The Sports Xchange
MONTREAL - One night after watching their two-goal lead become a home-ice shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens, the New Jersey Devils turned the tables.
John Moore scored at 2:31 of overtime to give the Devils a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Canadiens on Saturday at the Bell Centre.
Moore and center Adam Henrique took advantage of a pinch by Montreal blue-liner Andrei Markov to break out the other way on a 2-on-0 that became an odd-man rush when right winger Sven Andrighetto hustled back. Henrique dished off to Moore and goaltender Mike Condon made the initial save but the defenseman picked up his own rebound to complete the comeback.
"We made eye contact coming up and their guy was coming back so hard, so I had an idea," Moore said of a pass from Henrique. "I knew that if he didn't (pass) that I needed to be a little bit behind him for the rebound. It was a pretty lucky bounce and I was able to stick with it."
Goaltender Cory Schneider, making his first career start at the Bell Centre, stopped 30 shots for New Jersey (13-9-2) while Condon made 28 saves for the Canadiens (18-4-4).
Center Patrik Elias and right winger Kyle Palmieri scored third-period goals for the Devils, with Palmieri's coming with 22 seconds left in regulation.
"It's unacceptable," Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty said of the loss. "We have to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Center Alex Galchenyuk scored both Montreal goals.
Galchenyuk found the back of the net for the fourth straight game to get the scoring started at 9:06 of the second period.
After the Canadiens won a puck battle behind the net, the puck made its way to left winger Lars Eller, who backhanded it to defenseman Nathan Beaulieu at the left point. Beaulieu made his way to the middle of the blue line before winding up and taking a shot that hit Galchenyuk, being watched by Moore, at the hashmarks and rising to beat Schneider.
The goal, producing the longest goal-scoring streak of Galchenyuk's young career, extended the center's point streak to five games.
"Everybody keeps talking about confidence but you can't just wake up and feel confident about yourself and go out there and play with confidence," he said.
"I've worked hard in practice and I'm working hard in games, too, to get my offensive game going. I'm happy to be able to chip in offensively lately but I'm still focusing on keep doing what I'm doing and keep creating things out there."
He added his second of the night - on the power play - at 8:50 of the third period.
Center Tomas Plekanec picked up the loose puck after defenseman Andrei Markov's point shot hit Andy Greene's leg. Schneider saved the shot and Pacioretty got a few whacks at the rebound before Galchenyuk lifted it into the net.
Elias cut the lead in half just over two minutes later. Center Travis Zajac held off a Montreal defender before dishing off to blue-liner Adam Larsson at the right point. Larsson fired from outside the circle and deflected off Elias past Condon.
Palmieri forced overtime with his eighth of the season at 19:38. With Schneider pulled, Henrique won the faceoff and sent it to Moore. Moore quickly dished off to Palmieri along the wall, who wasted little time in sending his shot through a screen in front.
"We knew that if we stuck with our game plan and didn't try to become something we weren't that we'd eventually get rewarded," Schneider said. "When you get down to those 6-on-5 situations, sometimes it just takes one shot and we were able to get it. It was a lot of resolve from our team to stay with it, even when we were down 2-0 in the third."
NOTES: The Devils kept the same lineup as Friday night's matchup, scratching C Brian O'Neill, C Stefan Matteau and D David Schlemko. ... Montreal made one change to its lineup, inserting LW Christian Thomas for C/W Bud Holloway, leaving D Alexei Emelin as the other healthy scratch. Holloway was reassigned to St. John's of the American Hockey League. ... Canadiens D Andrei Markov suited up for his 871st career NHL game, tying him with Steve Shutt for 13th on the team's all-time games played list, while C Tomas Plekanec appeared in his 786th game, claiming sole possession of 22nd place. ... New Jersey RW Jiri Tlusty missed his fourth straight game with an upper body injury.
Top Game Performances
New Jersey |
|
Montreal |
John Moore 2 |
Points |
Alex Galchenyuk 2 |
John Moore 1 |
Goals |
Alex Galchenyuk 2 |
Adam Henrique 2 |
Assists |
Nathan Beaulieu 1 |
N/A |
Power Play Goals |
Alex Galchenyuk 1 |
N/A |
Short Handed Goals |
N/A |
Cory Schneider .938 |
Save Percentage |
Michael Condon .903 |
Cory Schneider 30 |
Saves |
Michael Condon 28 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Shots |
Goals |
Power Play |
Penalty Kill |
Penalty Mins |
Face Offs Won |
New Jersey
|
31 |
3 |
0-2 |
1-2 |
4 |
25 |
Montreal
|
32 |
2 |
1-2 |
2-2 |
4 |
43 |
Upcoming Games
-
Montreal will play their next game at home against Columbus. The Canadiens have a W/L % of .722 after a win and .714 after a loss.
-
New Jersey will play their next game at home against Colorado. The Devils have a W/L % of .500 after a win and .545 after a loss.