NEWARK, N.J. _ It was a character win if ever there were one.
Just hours after the NHL trade deadline passed and the Devils took the ice against the Montreal Canadiens, a team jostling for a playoff spot in an Eastern Conference race getting tighter by the day, without goalie Keith Kinkaid or forward Marcus Johansson, who were dealt on deadline day for draft picks, and defenseman Will Butcher, who was a late scratch with a lower-body injury.
Quickly, the Devils lost two more players when Miles Wood and John Quenneville were injured in the first and second periods, respectively.
Yet somehow, the players left on the New Jersey bench prevailed for a 2-1 win at Prudential Center.
Cory Schneider stopped 34 of 35 shots, Nathan Bastian scored his first NHL goal and Kurtis Gabriel scored his second NHL goal in the last three games. The penalty kill may have been the MVP going 4-for-4, including one with 8:43 left to play to keep the slim lead intact.
With the Devils on the power play early in the third, Phillip Danault poked the puck away from Travis Zajac and sent it to Paul Byron, who beat Damon Severson down the ice to cut the lead in half with a short-handed goal. Devils' forward and Flanders' native Kenny Agostino nearly made it 3-1 with a breakaway a few minutes later but Carey Price turned him aside.
Three minutes into the second period Gabriel made it 2-0 for New Jersey, catching a rebound and flipping a backhand over Price. Bastian redirected a point shot by Connor Carrick, the key piece of the return on the Ben Lovejoy trade with the Dallas Stars on Saturday, at 12:35 in the first period. Carrick had two assists in his Devils' debut.
