Allen makes 34 saves, Devils shut out Canadiens

MONTREAL -- Jake Allen made 34 saves for his second shutout in four games, and the New Jersey Devils won 4-0 against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Jesper Bratt and Jack Hughes each had a goal and an assist, and Paul Cotter and Luke Hughes scored for New Jersey (31-20-6), which has alternated wins and losses the past six games heading into the 4 Nations Face-Off to be held in Montreal and Boston from Feb. 12-20.

“Obviously we’ve been up and down for quite a while lately,” Allen said. “And we have 12 days off, something like that, here and you want to go into that with a good mindset. It could have easily went the other way tonight and we could have had 12 days to dwell on it, but now it’s a good way to close it out and we get time to regroup here, relax, get away from it a little bit.”

Allen stopped Owen Beck’s penalty shot with 16 seconds remaining to preserve his 28th NHL shutout. It was his fourth of the season, including a 24-save performance in a 5-0 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Jan. 29.

“He was really calm, kept everything in front of him,” Devils coach Sheldon Keefe said. “There’s a lot of shots from the perimeter that can turn into second and third opportunities but he was eating a lot of things up today that allowed our team to settle down. He looked like a veteran goaltender that he is today and that’s what our team needed.”

Bratt, who has 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) during his eight-game assist and point streaks, will play for Sweden during the 4 Nations Face-Off, and Jack Hughes will play for the United States.

“It’s going to be fascinating to watch,” Keefe said. “I mean, obviously those are the ones that are close to home, and (Devils forward Erik) Haula as well for Finland. But the whole event, I think, is going to be tremendous. Somebody asked me the other day who I thought was going to win the event. To me, I think the fans are going to win this event.

“It’s a tremendous opportunity to see the best on best and it’s been far too long since that’s been the case. So I’ll tune in but certainly be looking forward to some family time.”

Sam Montembeault made 18 saves for Montreal (25-25-5), which is 1-6-1 in its past eight games.

“We obviously need to find ways to score,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. “We generate some chances but it hasn’t been good enough lately, and especially at home, we need to get the crowd into it and scoring no goals is tough to do that.”

Montreal hosts the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday (1 p.m. ET; RDS, TSN2, NHLN, FDSNSUN).

“My mindset is we’ve got one more game,” Canadiens forward Josh Anderson said. “Today was obviously a big game for us and we wanted that one, but obviously it didn’t go our way and just look forward to tomorrow and try to get back in the win column.”

Montembeault, who will play for Canada, will back up Jakub Dobes on Sunday.

“I know I have to be better, you know, like recently,” Montembeault said. “I know I have to be more consistent. I know I can do better and I can be better, but I have the chance for the next two weeks to still go on the ice and still work out and try to get back and find my game, and to do that in practice with all the best players in the world.

“So it’s going to be a good challenge and I want to take this time to really get my game back and come back strong after the break.”

Bratt gave New Jersey a 1-0 lead at 13:43 of the first period. He snapped a one-timer past Montembeault’s glove from the top of the slot on Tomas Tatar’s centering pass from behind the net.

Cotter made it 2-0 at 12:44 of the second when he put a backhand into an open net on a rebound of Bratt’s shot.

Jack Hughes pushed it to 3-0 at 1:53 of the third when he drove the right side on a 2-on-1 with Bratt and put a wrist shot past Montembeault stick side.

“The penalty kill is massive at the start of the third,” Keefe said. “Obviously it’s a game-altering type of situation and rather than them getting one and getting momentum, we not only kill it but make it three.”

Luke Hughes scored at 10:09 on a slap shot from the top of the left face-off circle for the 4-0 final.

“The third goal was kind of the dagger there in the third period,” Suzuki said. “A two-goal lead, you’re in a pretty decent spot to try to come back but down three is a lot harder. We had a pretty good feeling going into the third that we could get one on the power play and then come back."

NOTES: Bratt is tied with five others for the second-longest assist streak in Devils/Colorado Rockies/Kansas City Scouts franchise history. Petr Sykora had at least one assist in nine consecutive games in 2000-01. … Jack and Luke Hughes became the fourth set of brothers in the last decade to score in the same period (Eric and Marc Staal of the Florida Panthers in the second period on Feb. 20, 2023; Daniel and Henrik Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks in the first period on April 4, 2015; and Eric and Jordan Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes in the first period on Feb. 20, 2015). … Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson played his 600th NHL game.