MONTREAL — There’s nothing like a visit to Montreal to snap New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur out of a slump.
The Montreal native continued his mastery over the Canadiens on Thursday night to lead the Devils to a 3-0 win.
“He’s not finished yet,” Canadiens goaltender Carey Price said of the 38-year-old Brodeur.
Brodeur, who arrived in Montreal with a 1-4-1 record to start the season, made 29 saves for the 112th shutout of his career. Nine of those shutouts have been against the Canadiens and the win boosted his career record against Montreal to 39-16-5 with a goals-against average of and a goals-against average of 1.78.
“We had lots of shots, but we need to get more second and third chances,” said Canadiens captain Brian Gionta, who led the team with eight shots on goal.
“We made it easy for them tonight.”
Brodeur had little work after the first 11 minutes of the game. The Canadiens built a 10-3 edge in shots, but neither team had a shot on goal in the final nine minutes of the first period. The Canadiens had a shot drought of 13:38 between Alexandre Picard’s shot at 10:59 of the first period and Gionta’s shot at 4:37 of the second period.
Price didn’t face as many shots as Brodeur — he stopped 17 of 20 shots — but he faced tougher shots and made the more spectacular saves.
The Devils took a 1-0 lead at 4:20 of the first period when Zach Parise found an opening on the short side.
New Jersey was handed a great opportunity later in the period when Canadiens defenceman Jaroslav Spacek passed the puck to Devils sniper Ilya Kovalchuk at the Montreal blue-line. The $100-million man skated in alone but Price dodged a bullet when Kovalchuk fired wide of the net.
Price made a glove save on Kovalchuk during a power play early in the second period. He used his glove to stop winger Dainius Zubrus midway through the period and his best save came moments later when Zubrus set up Devils centre Travis Zajac on a 2-on-1 break but Price challenged the shooter and made the save.
The Canadiens managed to kill a penalty toward the end of the period, but centre Tomas Plekanec was still skating from the penalty box when Devils centre Jason Arnott made the score 2-0 at 14:59 of the second period. Zubrus set him up in the high slot and his shot was deflected by Canadiens winger Dustin Boyd.
The Devils’ Matt Taormina scored at 3:39 of the third period with a shot from the point. The puck was bouncing when Taormina shot and the result was a knuckleball which beat Price high on the glove side.
After that, it seemed the only question after that was whether Brodeur would hang on for the shutout.
“They have an experienced team and they know what to when they get the lead,” Canadiens coach Jacques Martin. “They know how to shut it down and they have a great goaltender.”
Brodeur made his best saves in the third period, stopping a deflected Andrei Kostitsyn shot from the point early in the frame and then stopping Gionta from close range on a power-play late in the period.
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