Kinkaid, Matteau Help Devils End Losing Streak Vs. Habs

The New Jersey Devils came into tonight’s game with a lot of things heading in the wrong direction. They had lost their last 6 games, scored only 7 goals in that stretch and know things will be rough the rest of the season. In their last 5 games this season the Florida Panthers are the only team they face that is not in playoff contention, but tonight the focus would be on the Montreal Canadiens who currently sit in first in the Atlantic Division. Both Keith Kinkaid and Dustin Tokarski got the starts tonight in net, this being Kinkaid’s third start against Montreal this season.

More from Pucks and Pitchforks

• Should New Jersey Devils Try Load Management With Vitek Vanecek?
• New Jersey Devils Will Prove That Last Year Wasn’t A Fluke
• New Jersey Devils: Luke Hughes’ Playmaking Will Outshine His Mistakes
• New Jersey Devils: Chase Stillman’s Performance Causes Concern
• Can Devils Fans Separate Zach Parise Heartbreak From Achievements?

The Devils started the first period strong as they put three shots on Tokarski before the Canadiens were able to register a shot on Kinkaid almost 7 minutes in. Shortly after, the Devils would draw first blood after a great check by

helped force a

turnover which would soon lead to an

shot from the point with Matteau in-front to put in the rebound.

The goal was Matteau’s first of the season and only the second of his young NHL career with New Jersey. Montreal would later tie it up at one a piece after a Tomas Plekanec snipe on the power-play beat a screened Kinkaid who never saw the shot. Then just two minutes later, Canadiens defenseman Jeff Petry beat Kinkaid on a shot from the point to give Montreal the 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission.

Drawing back into the lineup after serving as a healthy scratch the last two games, Reid Boucher was able to tie the game at 2-2 just under 5 minutes into the 2nd period by deflecting a Jon Merrill shot past Tokarski. The goal was also Boucher’s first goal of the season and third of his NHL career. The assist by Merrill was his first point in 18 games.

Things got interesting late in the second when Scott Gomez was on the receiving end of a hard hit from Alexei Emelin which sent him into the end boards hard on his back. The play could’ve been considered boarding but was pretty borderline and luckily Gomez wasn’t hurt on the play. He was however very upset with Emelin and after recovering from the hit he slowly skated in front of Emelin and delivered an elbow high to his face.

After the ensuing scrum was sorted out Gomez would receive a 5-minute major and game misconduct for elbowing. There’s a very good chance he will have a hearing with the NHL Department of Player Safety due to the elbow on Emelin and I would be surprised if he gets a 2-3 game suspension. The Devils would be able to kill off the 5 minute Montreal power-play and end the second period tied at two.

The third period was very evenly played, but the action would get very intense once again towards the end of the period. After a Stefan Matteau delay-of-game penalty, Andy Greene took a questionable tripping penalty which gave the Canadiens a 5-on-3 power-play for 33 seconds. The Devils would survive to kill-off both penalties and barely make it to overtime. The Devils penalty-kill was huge in this game as they had to deal with 25 penalty minutes and the shot totals were evident of that as they were out-shot 13-3 in the third and 30-17 at the end of regulation.

The Devils penalty woes would continue in overtime after Andy Green took another tripping penalty roughly half-way into the period, but the PK unit would do its just yet again. They killed-off 5 of 6 Canadien power-plays tonight and were a major reason the game went into a shootout.

Live Feed

Causeway Crowd

In the shootout both Reid Boucher and Brandon Gallagher went in the first round and had their attempts saved. In the second round,

displayed some shootout brilliance yet again and beat Tokarski. Then after another great save by Kinkaid,

completely deked out Tokarski and put it past him easily to win the shootout 2-0 for the Devils and finally end the six game losing streak by defeating the Canadiens by a final of 3-2.

While the penalty-kill was a major major part of the victory tonight, I can’t say enough about how Keith Kinkaid played tonight. He bailed the Devils out more times than I can even remember and was huge in the shootout after stopping both attempts he faced. He was able to stop 31 of 33 shots he faced tonight and finally was able to get a win against Montreal this season.

Mar 31, 2015; Columbus, OH, USA; Columbus Blue Jackets center Brandon Dubinsky (17) skates past New Jersey Devils center Stefan Matteau (25) during the second period at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Russell LaBounty-USA TODAY Sports

How about the game that Stefan Matteau had tonight? I know he took the delay-of-game penalty tonight, but after taking a penalty which gave the Blue Jackets a penalty shot in the last game (see picture on right) he rebounded tonight in his 12:21 of ice time by scoring a goal, putting two very good shots on net and mixing it up with Alexei Emelin. He was all over the ice tonight and may have played his best game so far as a New Jersey Devil.

As mentioned earlier, Scott Gomez took a bad penalty when he elbowed Alexei Emelin in the face for a 5-minute game misconduct. As a veteran of the team and the league I’d expect more out of Gomez as that was not only a dumb penalty to take because of what he did, but also because of how it could’ve impacted the rest of his team. Luckily for him the Devils PK unit was stellar tonight and was able to survive the 5 minute penalty-kill.

With the losing streak over, hopefully the Devils can start to build on this win tonight and finish the rest of the season strong. The Devils will be back on the ice in New York City tomorrow to square off against the cross-river rival Rangers at 7 p.m. in what will be the first in a home-and-home series.

Next: Devils Fan Spotlight, Melissa From Maywood