Salut la Visite | GAME STORY

MONTREAL, QC - The New Jersey Devils picked up a big 3-0 victory in Montreal on Sunday night, and have extended their regulation win streak on Montreal's home ice to 11 straight victories. With their win, New Jersey brings Montreal's eight-game win streak to a halt.

It was an all-around performance by the club. 

"You love to see it," Jacob Markstrom said. "From penalty kill, to blocking shots, to forechecking, to not giving them any scoring opportunities, give them maybe one odd-man rush the whole game, and I don’t think they had many shots on their power play either. Our penalty kill did an unbelievable job, and five-on-five we took care of business.”

Timo Meier scored in the first period, and Cody Glass added to the lead at the tail end of the second.

In the third, it was the penalty kill that had to hold down the fort, with New Jersey's penalty killers putting in the extra work, fending off three Canadiens power plays in the third, and four overall all night. 

“It’s a Top-10 power play," Glass, who played 2:44 on the penalty kill, said. "Having Caufield and all those guys always trying to find each other, they have great chemistry, just trying to keep them to the outside and let Marky have those outside shots.”

Connor Brown sealed the Canadiens' fate with an empty-net goal. Brown now has 12 points in his last 12 games. 

Jacob Markstrom made 18 saves for his first shutout of the season.

Here are some observations from the game:

• New Jersey's penalty killers were superb. Over the course of their four penalty kills, the Devils conceded just two shots to the Canadiens. 

The Devils have not lost to the Canadiens at the Bell Centre, in regulation, since the 2016-17 NHL season. The last time New Jersey lost on Bell Center ice in a 60-minute game was December 8, 2016, in a 5-2 loss.

Since then, the Devils have had just one regulation loss at the Bell Center, on Dec 14, 2017. 

There were a couple of melees on the ice at the Bell Centre, the first started with a Luke Hughes and Zach Bolduc altercation after a hit from Bolduc on Hughes and Hughes going for a crosscheck after that. It sent the players into the ice on a frenzy, and in particular, Johnny Kovacevic jumping in to defend his teammate, which resulted in a 10-minute misconduct. 

Later, Brenden Dillon would jump to the defense of Jack Hughes who was hit between Montreal's Josh Andersen and Arber Xhekaj. It drew an immediate response from Dillon, who went directly after Andersen. 

"You have Kovy and Luke standing up for himself, and you’ve got Dilly," Markstrom said, "You know, even if there’s no playoffs around the corner for us, we’ve got to build culture and we’ve got to build the will to win and that togetherness. I felt the guys did a great job today.”

• Cody Glass had an incredible individual effort on his 17th goal of the season, picking up the loose puck at center ice and splitting the Canadiens top defensive pairing in Noah Dobson and Mike Matheson, before taking a slapshot from just below the hashmarks and beating Fowler in the Canadiens net. 

"I finally got the puck with speed and just saw an opening and made a play and put it 5-hole,” Glass said of his goal. “I played like poop yesterday, so I wanted to come out and play better today.”

Glass’ goal put the Devils up 2-0 with less than two minutes to play in the second period. 

• Jack Hughes continues his dominance against the Montreal Canadiens. Hughes has played 15 games against the Canadiens in his career and has an incredible 25 points against the storied franchise. 

It’s his highest production against a non-divisional team in the NHL. 

• The boos rained down on Jack Hughes every time he touched the puck on Bell Centre ice. It likely has to do with him scoring the overtime winner for the US over Canada at the Olympics. 

It's a treatment a lot of stars get when they come to Montreal, for various reasons, especially the superstars of the league. It's a treatment that players like Alex Ovechkin receive, and just last week, rookie sensation for the Islanders Matthew Schaeffer received as well. It's been a long-standing tradition at the Bell Centre.

• On back-to-back night, New Jersey prevented Montreal’s Cole Caufield from scoring his 50th goal of the season. Caufield, who is sitting on 49, could become the first Canadien to score 50 in a season since Stefan Richer, who ended the year with 51 in 1989-90.