Montembeault makes 37 saves as Canadiens stun Devils
Montreal ends New Jersey's 6-game home winning streak
The way Sam Montembeault was playing in goal against the red-hot New Jersey Devils, the Montreal Canadiens certainly didn't look like one of the NHL's weaker teams.
Montembeault stopped three breakaways and made 37 saves as the Canadiens stunned the Devils 5-2 on Tuesday night, snapping New Jersey's six-game home winning streak.
"I felt good. I was seeing the puck well," Montembeault said. "We blocked a lot of shots to help me out. The guys came up with big blocks, but I remember giving up two breakaway goals on my blocker side against Carolina and I worked on that a lot in the last few practices so I'm happy to get the stops tonight."
The Canadiens, 15th in the 16-team Eastern Conference standings, had lost their last two games by a combined 11-3 score.
"It's definitely rewarding for a coach to see instant improvement and the buy-in," coach Martin St. Louis said. "I always say I think as coaches you're trying to convince them to do things a certain way and when they do it and get rewarded I think it's a lot easier to convince them through the success we're having. It's a buy-in and we have that."
WATCH | Canadiens snap 2-game skid with win over Devils:
Jesper Bratt and Dawson Mercer scored for New Jersey, which lost for only the third time in 18 games (13-3-2). Vitek Vanecek had 13 saves in losing for the sixth time (24-6-3).
Devils defenceman Damon Severson wasn't sure if the team took Montreal lightly.
"It was just we didn't have it on the gas right from the start," he said. "So we like to say we didn't take it for granted, but maybe we did. And they're still a really good hockey team. So it's the NHL. You're going to play good players, good teams every night. And they took advantage of us tonight."
Kovavcevic snapped a 1-all tie at 2:29 of the second period when he beat Vanecek from between the circles on a nice setup by Jesse Ylonen. It was his second goal of the season and first since Dec. 6.
Suzuki, who also had an assist, stretched the lead to two goals with a shot to the corner on an odd-man rush after a New Jersey turnover in the offensive zone.
"I can't say enough good things about Sam," Kovacevic said. "He's been great for us all year and tonight he showed us again whey we really have to thank him on a lot of those breakaways ... I was out there for a few of them and he has my back. So I appreciated that."
Pitlick made it 4-1, capping a rush up the ice early in the third period. After Mercer scored on a power play to cut the lead to 4-2, Matheson scored into an empty net with 3:47 to go to ice the game.
