The New Jersey Devils scored two first-period goals and held on to a 3-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
Nathan Bastian and Nico Hischier scored for New Jersey. Tomas Tatar added an empty-net goal against his former team.
Dawson Mercer extended his point streak to 12 games, a franchise record for skaters under the age of 22.
Denis Gurianov scored Montreal’s lone goal.
Jake Allen made 34 saves. The Canadiens (26-34-6) helped their netminder by blocking 25 shots but slipped to a six-game winless skid.
WATCH l Hischier’s 2nd period goal holds up as winner vs. Canadiens:
Nico Hischier’s second period winner held up as New Jersey defeated Montreal 3-1 Saturday night.
The Devils opened the scoring at 8:24 of the opening frame when Bastian stole the puck away from Kaiden Guhle behind the net and surprised Allen to bag his sixth goal of the season.
Gurianov scored his first goal as a Hab at the Bell Centre to cut Montreal’s deficit by one goal at 18:23 of the second period. Alone in the slot, the Russian accepted a pass from Rem Pitlick behind the net to notch his fourth of the campaign on a one-timer.
With under two minutes remaining, Montreal pulled their goalie. Jonathan Drouin almost gave his team the equalizer when his wrister rang off the post.
On the very next sequence, former Hab Tatar bagged the empty-netter to give the Devil a 20th win since the turn of the year.
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