National Hockey League
New Jersey 3, Montreal 2
When: 7:00 PM ET, Sunday, March 27, 2022
Where: Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey
Referees: Ghislain Hebert, Carter Sandlak
Linesmen: Matt MacPherson, Kory Nagy
Attendance: 12080

Jack Hughes scored two goals and Yegor Sharangovich scored the winner in the seventh round of the shootout as the New Jersey Devils defeated the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 on Sunday night in Newark, N.J.

Each team had scored three times over the first six rounds of the shootout before Sharangovich led off the seventh round, circled in from the left side and ripped a wrist shot past Montreal goaltender Sam Montembeault's glove side. Paul Byron followed with a chance to tie it but Devils goalie Nico Daws deflected his wrist shot wide of the goal.

It was the 15th multi-point game of the season for Hughes. Jesper Bratt extended his point streak to a career-best seven games with an assist and Daws made 31 saves for the Devils, who improved to 6-1-0 in their last seven home games.

Rem Pitlick and Josh Anderson scored for Montreal while Montembeault finished with 30 saves.

New Jersey, coming off a 4-3 loss at Washington on Saturday night, took advantage of a Montembeault turnover to take a 1-0 lead near the end of the first period. Sharangovich forechecked Montembeault as he was trying to clear the puck from in front of his net, and the puck went to Hughes in the right circle, where he quickly fired a wrist shot into the top corner over Montembeault's glove.

Hughes made it 2-0 at the 14:16 mark of the second period with a power-play goal. Bratt got the primary assist with a crossing pass to Hughes at the bottom of the right circle, where Hughes slid a wrist shot under defenseman Alexander Romanov and past Montembeault for his 24th goal of the season.

Montreal cut it to 2-1 near the end of the period when Anderson deflected Jesse Ylonen's shot from the left point into the right side of the net right after a power play expired. It was his 16th goal of the season.

Montreal pulled Montembeault for an extra attacker with a minute to go, and Pitlick tied it with 41.8 seconds left when he buried Christian Dvorak's no-look backhand crossing pass into a wide-open right side of the net for his 13th goal of the season.

Both teams had chances to win it in overtime but Bratt and Nico Hischier both hits posts and Mike Hoffman had a shot zing off both posts before going out.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
 
Montreal   New Jersey
Josh Anderson 1 Points Jack Hughes 2
Josh Anderson 1 Goals Jack Hughes 2
Cole Caufield 1 Assists Jesper Bratt 1
N/A Power Play Goals Jack Hughes 1
N/A Short Handed Goals N/A
Sam Montembeault .938 Save Percentage Nico Daws .939
Sam Montembeault 30 Saves Nico Daws 31
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Shots Goals Power Play Penalty Kill Penalty Mins Face Offs Won
Montreal 33 2 0-5 1-2 4 34
New Jersey 32 3 1-2 5-5 10 23
Upcoming Games
  • New Jersey will play their next game on the road against Boston. The Devils have a W/L % of .318 after a win and .400 after a loss.
  • Montreal will play their next game on the road against Florida. The Canadiens have a W/L % of .278 after a win and .283 after a loss.