When Martin St-Louis speaks, his players listen and the team smiles.

Nick Suzuki had one goal and one assist, Samuel Montembeault had 38 stops and the Montreal Canadiens defeated the New Jersey Devils 5-2 Tuesday at the Prudential Center.

After two losses despite good times against the Carolina Hurricanes and the Toronto Maple Leafs, St. Louis said Monday it wants its players to finish games better. That’s what they did against the Devils.

“It’s rewarding for a coach to see immediate improvements,” said St-Louis. As a coach you try to convince the players to do things a certain way. If they’re rewarded for it, it’s easier to persuade them. The whole group has decided to buy what I am selling them. »

The Canadian never bent his back and showed more opportunism than his opponent. Montembeault also had his say, notably making three saves from breakaways.

“We moved the puck well, we defended very hard, we blocked a lot of shots and Montembeault was excellent, listed in St-Louis. It’s a big team win. »

Mike Matheson had a goal and an assist while Justin Barron, Johnathan Kovacevic and Rem Pitlick also scored for the Canadian (24-29-4). Christian Dvorak has two assists.

However, the Habs lost Joel Armia’s services early in the first period. After that, he was no longer in action and the team did not provide any information on his condition.

Jesper Bratt and Dawson Mercer scored for the Devils (37-15-5), who suffered only their second regular loss in their last nine games (6-2-1). Jack Hughes had two assists and Vitek Vanecek made 13 saves.

The Canadian won’t play his next game until Friday when he visits the Philadelphia Flyers. The following evening he will receive the Ottawa Senators at the Bell Center.

At breakneck speed

The visitors started the meeting with a bang. Josh Anderson almost had a shot on goal after just ten seconds of play, but Vanecek blocked his shot from the slot.

The Devils keeper was also alert moments later when Michael Pezzetta deflected a throw-in from Evgenii Dadonov in his direction.

Barron made sure not to squander the Canadian’s good start by opening the scoring at 3:54. He used a nice backhand pass from Suzuki and hit Vanecek on the shield side. But the Devils managed to gradually turn the tide.

Montembeault stopped an Ondrej Palat shot from close range about nine minutes from time in the first half. However, he was powerless against a Bratt pitch at 6:12 in the face-off.

The Canadian hit the gas again after the break and scored two goals 1:13 apart. First, Kovacevic hit the finish with a one-timer at 2:29, then Suzuki upset Vanecek at 3:42.

Between the two goals, Montembeault had made an important save, frustrating Miles Wood at the breakaway.

The top twenty scenario repeated itself during the second period as the Devils calmly resumed their dormancy. Montembeault had to be alert to stop Erik Haula and Brendan Smith in particular.

Montembeault continued to rage in front of the Canadian net. He stopped Mercer on a breakaway early in the third period.

His teammates rewarded him with a fourth at 5:13. Pitlick completed a nice exchange of blows started by Dvorak and Evgenii Dadonov.

Mercer made it interesting by scoring on a comeback at 11:58 on the power play. Despite this revival of the opposing team, the Canadian managed to smother the threatening comeback of the Devils. It was Matheson who finally delivered the coup de grace, hitting in an empty net with 3:47 to go.

Dressing Room Echoes

The star of this engagement, Samuel Montembeault, was particularly pleased with his stops on the Devils’ three breakaways.

“I had been hit twice on the shield side in breakaways against the Carolina Hurricanes. I worked on that a lot with Eric [Raymond, l’entraîneur des gardiens]. I’m happy to see the result today. »

Johnathan Kovacevic admitted that the Habs defenders like to play their part on offense.

“There was a long time when we didn’t score a lot of goals. Now it looks like it’s contagious. We’re happy about each other’s success and cheer each other on after every goal. »

Josh Anderson underscored how badly the Canadian wanted to recover from the two recent defeats.

“When you lose two games in a row you always hope to find your rhythm. We’ve reworked some things to improve small aspects. We managed to fight back. »

To see in the video