Michael McLeod scored twice for the visiting New Jersey Devils, who snapped a seven-game losing streak by cruising to a 7-1 win over the reeling Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.
Dawson Mercer, Nico Hischier, Jesper Boqvist, Pavel Zacha and Tomas Tatar all scored for the Devils, who tied a season high in goals after being outscored 30-12 during their losing streak.
Jon Gillies made 30 saves in earning his second win of the season.
Brett Kulak scored for the Canadiens, who fell to an NHL-worst 8-30-7 by losing their fifth straight in regulation and seventh straight (0-5-2) overall. The losing streak ties a season high for Montreal, which went 0-6-1 from Nov. 29 through Dec. 14.
Goalie Cayden Primeau recorded 27 saves.
McLeod won faceoffs deep in the Canadiens’ zone to set up both of his goals. The center beat Jake Evans to set up his first goal, 4:36 after the opening faceoff. McLeod put back the rebound of a shot by Ryan Graves.
Mercer doubled the lead with 4:29 left in the first by taking a no-look pass from Boqvist and swooping in on Primeau for his first goal since Dec. 31.
Kulak cut the Canadiens’ gap in half 5:54 into the second, when his shot sailed past Gillies as the goalie was screened by Boqvist and Joel Armia.
The Devils put the game away with a trio of goals later in the period, including two in a 47-second span in the final 1:07.
Hischier capped an end-to-end rush by taking a pass from Mercer, who had just jumped on the ice, and firing a shot past a sprawling Primeau at the 9:14 mark.
Boqvist extended the lead to 4-1 when he shuffled the puck in the slot before beating Primeau, who was screened by Kulak and the Devils’ Andreas Johnsson.
Another faceoff win by McLeod led to him putting back the rebound of Graves’ shot with 19.1 seconds left.
Zacha scored on the power play 3:19 into the third, and Zacha fed Tatar from behind the net for the Devils’ final goal with 10:03 left.
–Field Level Media
