Palmieri, Devils rally to defeat Canadiens in OT

MONTREAL -- Kyle Palmieri scored a power-play goal at 1:30 of overtime, and the New Jersey Devils rallied to defeat the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Palmieri scored on a one-timer from the left face-off dot off a cross-ice pass from Taylor Hall after Canadiens forward Phillip Danault was called for hooking at 44 seconds.
"Hall] made a great pass across. and then the shot just sneaked through there," Palmieri said.
***[WATCH: [All Devils vs. Canadiens highlights]*
Wayne Simmonds tied it 3-3 with a power-play goal at 15:12 of the third period, tapping in another cross-ice pass from Hall from the right side.
The Devils went 2-for-6 on the power play, with each of their opportunities coming in the third period and overtime.
"Our power play started off very slow, but got two big ones there at the end," Hall said.

Nikita Gusev and Nico Hischier scored, and Mackenzie Blackwood made 31 saves in his fourth straight start for New Jersey (7-8-4), which defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 on Friday.
Keith Kinkaid made 39 saves in his first game against his former team, and rookie defenseman Cale Fleury scored his first NHL goal for Montreal (11-5-4), whose three-game winning streak ended. Brendan Gallagher and Nick Suzuki scored for the Canadiens, who won 5-2 at the Washington Capitals on Friday.
"My job is to get them two points, so I didn't do that tonight and it's just back to the drawing board," said Kinkaid, who made his first start in seven games since Oct. 31.
The go-ahead goal for Montreal with 48 seconds remaining in the third was overturned on video review when it was determined Danault had scored with a kicking motion.
"It could have gone either way," Blackwood said. "I didn't know where it was going to go because you really never know with calls like that. But fortunately, the call went our way and we were able to grab the two points."
Gallagher gave Montreal a 1-0 lead at 18:41 of the first period.

Gusev tied it 1-1 with 19 seconds remaining.
Fleury made it 2-1 on a backhand at 7:43 of the second period for his first NHL point in his 15th game.
"I like going to my backhand quite a bit, but I was just happy it went in," Fleury said.
Suzuki's power-play goal at 18:42 put the Canadiens up 3-1.
Hischier pulled New Jersey within 3-2 with a shorthanded goal with two seconds left in the period, scoring on a 2-on-1 off a pass from Pavel Zacha.

They said it

"I played with him for four years here in [New] Jersey, he was a great teammate. And you know he's a competitor, and you know how hard he goes out there and competes during the games. We knew we were going to get that out of them, and we knew he had this date circled on his calendar. So he played well. We had a lot of a lot of good chances that he made some big saves [on], and we're just happy to get the two points." -- Devils forward Kyle Palmieri on facing Canadiens goalie Keith Kinkaid, who played for New Jersey for six seasons (2012-13 to 2018-19)
"When we're playing four lines and rolling, we're at our best. But then we got into penalty kills, and half-power plays, and penalty kills. The whole momentum of the game was killed in the third, and there were a lot of those penalties." -- Canadiens coach Claude Julien

Need to know

Hischier has five goals in seven games against Montreal. … Canadiens forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi played center in his return after missing seven games because of a groin injury. Suzuki, a rookie who has also played right wing, remained at center, with Max Domi moving to left wing after playing center regularly since the beginning of last season. … Montreal forward Charles Hudon made his season debut. He was recalled from Laval of the American Hockey League after Jonathan Drouin was placed on injured reserve Saturday (upper body). … Forward Paul Byron did not play because of a lower-body injury he sustained Friday.

What's next

Devils: Host the Boston Bruins on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; SN360, SNE, SNO, SNW, MSG, NESN, NHL.TV)
Canadiens:At the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; FS-O, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV)