Kale Clague notched a goal and two assists. At the same time, Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki each contributed a goal and an assist in a three-goal first period to propel the Montreal Canadiens to a 7-4 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.
Christian Dvorak also scored a goal and two assists, and Chris Wideman, Joel Armia, and Jake Evans added goals for the Canadiens. Jake Allen made 33 saves, helping Montreal secure its second win in three games.
“He was great again,” Evans said of Allen. “We started well but got too comfortable and made some poor decisions. He kept us in the game and preserved our lead.”
New Jersey’s scorers were Jesper Bratt, Ty Smith, Tomas Tatar, and AJ Greer. Andrew Hammond allowed six goals on 19 shots before being pulled early in the third period. The Devils have now lost five straight games and 10 of their last 12, finishing 0-3-1 on their four-game homestand.
“We have to be better,” Tatar said. “We need to fix a lot of simple things. Those small errors are costing us games.”
Montreal jumped to a 3-1 lead in the first period and relied on Allen to maintain the advantage. The goalie made 14 saves in the second period and 18 over a span of 18:44, during which New Jersey outshot Montreal 19-2.
“He played awesome tonight,” Wideman said of Allen. “He kept us in it during the second period, and we rewarded him with a win. He deserved it.”
Greer cut Montreal’s lead to 3-2 with his first goal in his seventh career game with the Devils. Armia restored Montreal’s two-goal lead 1:20 later.
Wideman and Dvorak scored 15 seconds apart early in the third period, chasing Hammond from the net. Hammond fell to 0-1-1 since joining the Devils in a trade with the Canadiens on March 21.
Smith and Bratt scored to bring New Jersey within 6-4, but Clague’s goal at 13:17 ended any hope of a Devils comeback.
“You feel like you’re pushing, and then a big mistake happens, and it’s in the net,” Tatar said. “You try to build up again, get chances, and then there’s another puck in the net.”
Suzuki and Evans gave Montreal a 2-0 lead with first-period goals 2:06 apart. Suzuki received a pass from Rem Pitlick and beat Hammond over the glove.
“I kind of fanned on it and probably fooled him a bit,” Suzuki said of his shot. “We got kind of lucky, but we’ll take those all the time.”
Evans made it 2-0 after defenseman Corey Schueneman won a board battle and fed Evans for a blast that beat Hammond at 6:41.
“I think we need a save on one of those first two,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff said.
Tatar, who spent the past three seasons with Montreal before signing with the Devils in August, scored his 14th goal to put New Jersey on the board. He converted a pass from Dawson Mercer at 7:11.
POWER OUTAGE
The Devils went 0 for 2 on the power play and are 0 for 11 in their last 11 games during their five-game skid.
GOAL CAUFIELD
Caufield’s first-period goal was his third in as many games and his 16th since Martin St. Louis took over as Canadiens coach on Feb. 9. Caufield has four points in Montreal’s last three games and 29 (16 goals, 13 assists) in his last 25 games.
UP NEXT
- Canadiens: Visit Toronto on Saturday night.
- Devils: Visit Dallas on Saturday.
