NHL Saturday night Match Analysis: New Jersey Devils vs. Montreal Canadiens 5-3
New Jersey is determined to heat things up this 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season after one of the most disappointing performances in the earlier hockey year. The Devils worked together to give the Montreal Canadiens a tough time by rallying
in the final 20 minutes to win, 5-3, on Saturday night, December 17, 2011, at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The fans and management of the New Jersey Devils share the same views, which is that they expect their team to work together and win as a team instead of playing individually, which is something they have been unfortunately doing in the past.
Montreal fans and management expect the same thing, which the Canadiens could not give.
"We expect to win as a group in here -- the coaching staff and the management expect us to win, and the city and the fans expect us to win," Canadiens defenseman, Josh Gorges, said. "More than that, they expect us to play the right way. I think if we put
the effort in, they're going to be there to back us up; they always have. They know enough about hockey to understand if we played hard and just didn't get the breaks or we had a tough bounce and lost the game. But when it's something like tonight, why wouldn't
they boo us?"
New Jersey is now on a four-game winning streak and stands strong in the sixth position of the Eastern Conference, ahead of the Buffalo Bruins by two points and below fifth place Pittsburgh Penguins by three with 37 in total.
Montreal on the other hand is still struggling to make itself visible in the division as they stand 12th overall in the East under the Washington Capitals with 33 points and above the Tampa Bay Lightning, all three which are some of the big wigs
in the league and are currently sitting in the depths of the ranking.
Petr Sykora made the opening goal of the night nearly midway through the first period for his eighth of the regular season on a quick pass from Dainius Zubrus. They were given three straight power play advantages by Montreal in the first 20 minutes alone
but failed to capitalise on any single one throughout.
Montreal came back on their first power play with Mark Fayne being booked for interference and Canadiens rookie defenseman, P.K. Subban, bouncing the puck 2:21 into the second to level the match.
New Jersey took the lead once again with Patrik Elias potting their first added man advantage goal in the next three minutes.
Montreal tried to take the lead with two straight as Chris Campoli potted his first of the season and Lars Eller enabled the Canadiens to take the lead nearly midway through.
David Clarkson brought New Jersey right back with his equaliser at the 18:26 mark to force an intense third period competition which was to test the true capabilities of both teams to handle a considerable amount of pressure and tension.
The Devils were determined to take control early in the third with Patrik Elias in the opening two minutes with Dainius Zubrus making the insurance goal at the half way point after their first power play opportunity of the final period, securing the match
in their favour.
New Jersey will definitely be looking for their fifth straight victory when they host the New York Rangers on Tuesday while Montreal has the next six on the road starting off with the Boston Bruins on Monday.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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