Devils beat Canadiens in seventh round of shootout

[March 28, 2022] 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.

Montreal Canadiens right wing Cole Caufield (22) shoots the puck while being defended by New Jersey Devils left wing Tomas Tatar (90) during the first period at Prudential Center. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports

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

[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]  This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.