Devils-Canadiens Preview
The Montreal Canadiens have won all six of their meetings with teams from the New York Metropolitan Area.
They'll try to make it two in two days as they go for a sweep of a home-and-home series with the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night.
Montreal (18-4-2) owns the most points in the league and beating teams from the New York/New Jersey area has certainly helped. The Canadiens have won three meetings with the New York Islanders, two against the New York Rangers and one with the Devils (11-9-2).
That success, which includes scoring 4.0 goals per game, has also spurred a four-game winning streak. The Canadiens swept a home-and-home set with the Islanders last weekend before beating the Rangers 5-1 on Wednesday and winning 3-2 in a shootout at New Jersey two days later.
Sven Andrighetto and Alex Galchenyuk scored to erase a two-goal deficit in regulation, and they were the only Canadiens to find the net in the shootout.
"We never give up," said Andrighetto, who has two goals in three games since being recalled from St. John's of the AHL. "It shows we kept pushing and we all believed. We all pulled in the same direction with the bad start we had."
Galchenyuk has goals in three straight games after scoring twice through the first 21.
Montreal, though, will again have to overcome the absence of Carey Price, who is out with a nagging lower-body injury that forced him to miss nine games - eight this month.
It's unclear if Mike Condon will get the nod again after making 25 saves and turning aside four of five shootout attempts Friday.
"This is huge," said Condon, who is 8-2-2 with a 2.14 goals-against average in 13 games. "Anytime you get a win it's huge. It's not about one guy."
If Condon is rested, the Canadiens would start Dustin Tokarski, who was recalled from St. John's on Thursday. He allowed two goals on 13 shots after replacing an ineffective Condon in a 6-1 loss to Colorado on Nov. 14.
Tokarski, who was 2-2-2 with a 3.45 GAA in six games in the minors, had 16 saves in a 3-2 shootout loss at New Jersey on April 3.
The Devils have followed a 10-3-0 stretch by losing four of five despite Cory Schneider's 2.24 GAA while going 1-2-1. He made 25 saves before stopping three shootout attempts Friday.
"I think if you really look at the game, Schneider made some unbelievable saves and we could have been down," rookie coach John Hynes said. "That's a high-end offensive team."
Schneider didn't get the start in New Jersey's only set of games on back-to-back days, which were the first two of the season. That could change this time since backup Keith Kincaid is 1-3-0 with a 3.04 GAA in four starts. He had 38 saves in a 6-2 loss at Montreal on Feb. 7.
Adam Henrique leads the Devils with 11 goals, scoring one in each of the last three games. That's a welcome change after he had two over the previous 11.
He's only scored once in five visits to Montreal.
Mike Cammalleri has nine points over the last six games and three in his last four against Montreal.