Kyle Palmieri scored 90 seconds into overtime Saturday night for the visiting New Jersey Devils, who stormed back from a two-goal deficit to earn a chaotic 4-3 win over the host Montreal Canadiens.
The Devils trailed 3-1 in the waning seconds of the second period and nearly fell behind in the final minute of the third period, but Phillip Danault's goal for Montreal was waved off on review when it was determined he made a kicking motion as he was sprawled in the cage.
Palmieri, who hadn't scored since collecting a hat trick against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Oct. 30, gave the Devils their only lead of the game by firing a shot from the faceoff circle past former teammate Keith Kinkaid.
Nikita Gusev, Nico Hischier and Wayne Simmonds also scored for the Devils, who won both ends of a back-to-back set. New Jersey beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 on Friday.
Goalie MacKenzie Blackwood, who was in net against the Penguins, earned the win by making 31 saves.
Brendan Gallagher, Cale Fleury and Nick Suzuki scored for the Canadiens, who had a three-game winning streak snapped. Kinkaid recorded 39 saves.
The teams traded goals in a 60-second span late in the first. The Canadiens took the lead with 1:19 left on Gallagher's redirect of a Jeff Petry shot, but the Devils tied the score when Gusev put back the rebound of his own shot at the doorstep.
Fleury scored his first NHL goal in impressive fashion 7:43 into the second. After taking a pass from Danault, Fleury skated through traffic while shuffling the puck and motioning as if he was going to pass to Max Domi. Devils defenseman Andy Greene bought the deke and leaned toward Domi as Fleury backhanded the puck home.
The Canadiens doubled the lead on a five-on-three goal with 1:18 left in the second, when Suzuki put back the rebound of a Domi shot from just in front of the blue line.
The Devils cut the gap in half with a short-handed goal just before the end of the period, though, when Pavel Zacha stole the puck from Suzuki deep in the Montreal zone to begin a two-on-one that ended with Hischier scoring with 1.1 seconds left.
Simmonds tied the score with 4:48 left when he took a pass from Taylor Hall and caught Kinkaid leaning in the other direction as he fired a shot into the open corner of the net.
--Field Level Media
New Jersey | Montreal | |
Nico Hischier 2 | Points | Cale Fleury 1 |
Nico Hischier 1 | Goals | Cale Fleury 1 |
Taylor Hall 2 | Assists | Phillip Danault 1 |
Kyle Palmieri 1 | Power Play Goals | Nick Suzuki 1 |
Nico Hischier 1 | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Mackenzie Blackwood .912 | Save Percentage | Keith Kinkaid .907 |
Mackenzie Blackwood 31 | Saves | Keith Kinkaid 39 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
New Jersey | 43 | 4 | 2-6 | 4-5 | 12 | 34 |
Montreal | 34 | 3 | 1-5 | 4-6 | 14 | 40 |