Allen Keeps It Close | RECAP: NJD @ MTL

Rick Stephens

March 11, 2023

GAME RECAP | Montreal Canadiens vs New Jersey Devils: Habs, Line-up, Score, Statistics, Highlights, Post-game, Interviews, NHL, Three-Stars

FINAL | Game 66, Home Game 33 | Saturday March 11, 2023

Bell Centre, Montreal, QC

CANADIENS

Montreal

1-3

DEVILS

New Jersey

Jake Allen, Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Vitor Munhoz/NHLI via Getty Images)

Canadiens Lineup

Forward lines

Harvey-Pinard – Nick Suzuki – Jesse Ylonen

Mike Hoffman – Jonathan Drouin – Josh Anderson

Rem Pitlick – Chris Tierney – Denis Gurianov

Michael Pezzetta – Alex Belzile – Anthony Richard

Defence pairings

Mike Matheson – Johnathan Kovacevic

Kaiden Guhle – David Savard

Joel Edmundson – Chris Wideman

Goaltenders

Jake Allen – Sam Montembeault

Scratches

none

Injuries

Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Sean Monahan (lower-body), Brendan Gallagher (lower-body), Jake Evans (lower-body), Juraj Slafkovsky (lower-body), Cole Caufield (shoulder), Arber Xhekaj (upper-body), Kirby Dach (lower-body), Joel Armia (illness), Justin Barron (upper-body), Christian Dvorak (lower-body), Jordan Harris (lower-body)

Game Report

You couldn’t have blamed Canadiens’ fans for looking with envy at the visiting team tonight. The Devils were in the nether regions of the standings last season, and for several seasons, but have emerged as the third best team in the league presently.

New Jersey has been built through the draft. Not one, but several drafts. And they boast high-skilled players like Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier and Dawson Mercer, with more on the way. The Devils play fast, aggressive and with confidence.

The scoreboard flattered the Canadiens and that was thanks to Jake Allen who’s strong play in February has continued into March. The Devils possession game was too much for Habs at times. At even strength New Jersey managed the puck as if on the power-play.

Speaking of special teams, there were none to be found in this game. The officials let the teams play and did not call a penalty in this contest.

On Saturday, the Canadiens played their first game that featured 0 penalties from either team since February 17, 1980 vs the Sabres
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) March 12, 2023

The home side found it difficult to cope with the relentless Devils forecheck. The Habs committed plenty of turnovers in their own end.

Besides Allen, Johnathan Kovacevic and the Habs top line stood out on this night.

The Canadiens have now lost six straight games.

Up Next

The Canadiens will host the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night at the Bell Centre.

Plus

▲ Jake Allen, Johnathan Kovacevic, Nick Suzuki, Jesse Ylonen, Rafael Harvey-Pinard

Minus

▼ David Savard, Mike Matheson, Jonathan Drouin, Michael Pezzetta, Alex Belzile, Anthony Richard, Mike Hoffman, Chris Wideman, Josh Anderson, Rem Pitlick

Game Preview

Check out the game preview here:

The Numbers

Game Statistics
CANADIENS		DEVILS
24	Shots	37
50	Face-off %	50
0-for-0	Power Play	0-for-0
0	Penalty Minutes	0
34	Hits	17
49	Corsi For	72

Scoring Summary

FINAL	1	2	3	OT	SO	T
Canadiens (26-34-6)	0	1	0	–	–	1
Devils (43-16-6)	2	0	1	–	–	3

Scorers	Goalies
MTL: Gurianov (4) NJD: Bastian (6), Hishchier (28), Tatar (15)-ENG	MTL: Allen (L) (14-21-3) NJD: Schmid (W) (8-4-1)

Stars of the Game

NHL Three Stars
	Nico Hischier NJD Jake Allen MTL Dawson Mercer NJD

Watch

Video Highlights

What Did They Say?

Post-game Quotes

Marty St. Louis

“In the first half, we made a lot of turnovers and we had to defend ourselves. But we defended well and we didn’t give them much. In the second half we played better. We managed to play a little more behind them.”
“They’re a good team and you have to give them credit. Their players are fast and they don’t give a lot of space. I think we handled it well though.”

Johnathan Kovacevic

“They’re a fast team that likes to play behind you. They apply a lot of pressure, but they also want to control the puck and that probably explains why they had so much possession of the puck. I think we still managed to contain them well. We managed to defend ourselves better from the second period.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

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