Devils sweep the season series against Montreal

Under-manned and outshot - but not outscored.

The New Jersey Devils beat the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night, despite dropping to 16 skaters at the start of the second period. Nathan Bastian's first NHL goal put the Devils on the board first, Kurtis Gabriel added to that lead and Cory Schneider came up huge against Montreal to post the 2-1 victory.
Here are 10 Takeaways from the game:
1. It was a busy day for the New Jersey Devils management as the NHL Trade Deadline has come and gone. Before the 3 p.m. cut-off General Manager Ray Shero made a pair of moves that altered his gameday lineup.
Tweet from @NJDevils: Ray Shero was a busy man today. Full video ������: https://t.co/AJpu0L8eS3 pic.twitter.com/pEuWfFSq7p
The first move of the day involved sending goaltender Keith Kinkaid to the Columbus Blue Jackets, followed by a late afternoon move that sent Marcus Johansson to the Boston Bruins. In conjunction with those moves, the club also made several recalls from Binghamton, bringing up forwards Michael McLeod, Bastian and John Quenneville, defenseman Egor Yakovlev and goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood. All four skaters played against the Canandiens, while Blackwood served as Schneider's backup.
2. Joining the Devils for the first time was defenseman Connor Carrick who was acquired for Ben Lovejoy over the weekend. Carrick made his Devils debut wearing no. 5 and skated with Mirco Mueller. The 24-year-old also saw some time on the New Jersey power play. Carrick had an impressive debut with the Devils earning two-assists.
3. Bastian is now the proud owner of his first NHL goal. He put the Devils on the board at the 12:35 mark of the first period, on a goal assisted by newcomer Carrick and same-day callup Yakovlev.

Bastian capitalized off a Carrick point shot, by making his way in front of Carey Price and tapping the puck past the Canadiens netminder. Bastian picks up his first NHL goal and point in just his second NHL game, as Carrick earns his first assist with New Jersey. For Yakovlev it was his sixth point and fourth assist of the year.
4. Gabriel has found a bit of a scoring touch for New Jersey. After scoring his first NHL goal against the Senators two games prior, Gabriel added another to his total to extend the Devils lead to 2-0 early in the second frame.

Once again it was a Carrick point shot that made its way to Price who let up a juicy rebound right to Gabriel. Gabriel made no mistake with the rebound, pouncing on the puck for his second career goal. Carrick was credited with his second assist of the night, while Kevin Rooney picked up the secondary assist on Gabriel's goal.
5. Devils dropped to just 16 skaters during the second period when both Miles Wood and Quenneville did not return to the ice after the first intermission. The Devils certainly had their work cut out for themselves in the second period as the Canadiens took advantage of an undermanned Devils squad with 14 shot on Schneider, who stopped all shots he faced. Meanwhile, the Devils had just six shots on goal - one of which was the Gabriel goal.
Wood's night ended after just 3:09 of ice time and one shot on goal, while Quenneville played just 5:13.
6. The absence of Wood and Quenneville meant that many players on the Devils roster were playing more minutes than they are accustom to. Blake Coleman certainly had a busy night, logging a new career-high 24:55 of ice time.
7. New Jersey's penalty killers were busy against the Canadiens, forced to kill off penalties on four separate occasions. Nevertheless, the Devils handled it with ease against Montreal, killing off all five penalties - including two to Nico Hischier, which was the first two-penalty game of the season for the 20-year-old, and just the third multi-penalty game of his career. The last time Hischier, who is remarkably adept at staying out of the box, was called for two penalties was last season, on April 7, 2018 at Washington.
8. Schneider had to stand tall for the Devils, with the Canadiens powering 35 shots at the Devils netminder. Schneider let in just one goal against Montreal, surrendered shorthanded on the Habs 27th shot of the night with 13:30 to play in the game. Schnedier ended the night making 34 of 35 saves.
9. With Schneider posting the victory, it is the first time he has beat Montreal since 2015. His last victory against the Canadiens coming on November 28, 2015. It also marks just the second victory against Montreal in his career. The Devils netminder is now 4-1-0 in his past five games.
10. The Devils complete the season sweep of the Canadiens, going 3-0-0 in their meetings this year. It is the first time since the 2008-09 NHL season that New Jersey has swept a series against Montreal.
Bonus takeaway...
11. The team's helmet, that is given out to an unsung hero of the game, was presented to Bastian tonight.

Tweet from @NJDevils: #TheHelmet | #������4������2������ pic.twitter.com/QqD6L6S6OZ