NEWARK, N.J. _ Finally, Taylor Hall got some help.
The Devils broke out of their scoring slump with four goals in the first period en route to a 6-4 win over Montreal on Tuesday night in front of 14,586 fans at Prudential Center. The "M-V-P" chants rang out in Newark after Hall picked up an early assist and the celebration continued all night long. Hall extended his point streak to 19 straight games and 26 appearances in a row and the barrage of offense kept coming. This time, the Devils' supporting cast did more than enough.
"He's a leader on and off the ice for us," coach John Hynes said, earlier in the day. "I think he feels really comfortable and the way we play really suits his style. I think he's really matured as a young man. He communicates very well and has bought into what we're doing. We're really fortunate to have _ we've said this really for two years _ to have a motivated Taylor Hall that's becoming a leader on the team."
These are the type of wins the Devils need.
A banged up crew of Canadiens came to town without their usual cast of stars. No Carey Price. No Max Pacioretty. And No Shea Weber.
The results showed.
The Devils opened the night with their highest-scoring period of the season as their bottom-six forwards came to life. Stefan Noesen started it off by tipping in a shot from the point, the first of many goals from near the crease. Blake Coleman added another goal by finessing a rebound around backup netminder Charlie Lindgren. Then Travis Zajac ended his 14-game goal drought by scoring back-to-back power-play tallies before intermission. It took the Habs about six minutes to register their first shot on goal and the Zajac line certainly did their part early on to control possession.
With the win, the Devils (34-25-8) snapped a three-game losing streak and kept some distance over Columbus for the first wild-card spot.
The message from Hynes throughout the recent skid was to stay the course. The Devils entered the night having outshot five of their past seven opponents, all while averaging a bit under two goals per game.
The puck luck just wasn't on their side. At least, not until Tuesday.
"We know that it's a tight playoff race," Hynes said. "We're in it. We're happy to be in it. I know we're excited about it, but we can't get too high or too low. Win a couple and then we're great, then lose a couple and the skies are falling. It's really not how it is. We know we got to win. But we got to stay the course and stay even-keel."
