NEWARK, N.J. _ Teemu Selanne used to have a theory about goal scoring in the NHL: It's like getting ketchup out of the bottle.
The diners around town must be all out of ketchup after the Devils' offensive explosion on Wednesday night at Prudential Center. A few days after finding the back of the net just once in 34 tries against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Devils returned home and hung five on Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens in a 5-2 win.
It was the second straight five-goal start for Price but for the Devils (9-9-2), it had been a little longer. It was just the third time this season they matched their season-high and the first time in five games they scored more than four. Pavel Zacha scored twice, including once on the power play to halt the Devils' streak of games without a power-play goal at seven.
The top line of Taylor Hall, Nico Hischier and Kyle Palmieri also scored for New Jersey and Keith Kinkaid made 24 saves.
Zacha scored his fourth goal in three games as time wound down on the Devils' first power play in the second period by finishing off a 2-on-1 to give the Devils a 5-1 lead. It's the type of chance Zacha had previously been looking for before his demotion to the American Hockey League earlier this month but not the necessarily type he focused on when in Binghamton.
His efforts in Binghamton showed on his first goal at the 10:01 mark of the second when he parked himself right next to the net and was able to finish a feed from Damon Severson with his backhand to make it 4-1.
This came just a little over a minute after Hall finished off a sweet feed from Egor Yakovlev to make it 3-1.
Palmieri opened the scoring when he redirected Andy Greene's point shot past Price at 6:26 in the first period. Just 24 seconds later, Jonathan Drouin tied it but Hischier's shot off the crossbar with 3:05 left in the period put the Devils ahead for good.
Morristown native Kenny Agostino appeared to have made it 5-2 nearly three minutes into the third period but the goal was immediately waved off for goaltender interference and the call was upheld after a review in Toronto. Max Domi, the son of former Ranger Tie Domi, finally gave the Habs (11-7-4) that second goal with 9:08 left in regulation.
