Dvorak, Wideman, Clague each has three points, Canadiens top Devils

The Montreal Canadiens defeated the New Jersey Devils for the first time in regulation in five years, 7-4 at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on Thursday.

Christian Dvorak, Chris Wideman and Kale Clague each had a goal and two assists, and Jake Allen made 33 saves for Montreal (20-40-11), which last defeated New Jersey in regulation on Jan. 20, 2017.
"[Allen is] one of the guys that you look at in our group who's basically on every night," Wideman said. "And when we have a chance to win he's usually playing very well, so he played awesome tonight. He kept us in the game in the second and thankfully we were able to reward him with a win, and he deserved it."
A.J. Greer scored his first NHL goal in more than three years for New Jersey (24-41-6), which finished 0-3-1 on its homestand.
"We gave up some early goals that maybe we shouldn't have," Greer said.

Andrew Hammond allowed six goals on 19 shots in his second start for the Devils since being acquired in a trade with the Canadiens on March 21. He allowed seven goals on 41 shots in his debut with New Jersey, a 7-6 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers on April 2.
Nico Daws replaced Hammond at 1:26 of the third period and made six saves.
"We know one thing for sure, we had a tough night in goal," New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said.
Nick Suzuki put the Canadiens up 1-0 at 4:35 of the first period with a wrist shot under Hammond's glove off a cross-ice pass from Rem Pitlick.
"He's a really smart player," Suzuki said about Pitlick. "I think he compliments me and Cole [Caufield] pretty well. We're just kind of getting started, we haven't had the opportunity to play with each other that much so we're just trying to build day by day."
Jake Evans made it 2-0 at 6:41 with a slap shot off a pass from Corey Schueneman.
Tomas Tatar cut it to 2-1 at 7:11 with a one-timer off a pass from Dawson Mercer before Caufield made it 3-1 at 13:44 of the second period.
Greer got New Jersey within 3-2 at 15:00. It was his second NHL goal and first since Feb. 20, 2019, when he played for the Colorado Avalanche.
"It was important, not only for my first game back up, but for everything that's been going on," said Greer, who was recalled from Utica of the American Hockey League on Wednesday. "I try to work as hard as I can every day."

Joel Armia pushed the lead to 4-2 at 16:20, Wideman made it 5-2 at 1:11 of the third period, and Dvorak put the Canadiens in front 6-2 when he scored 15 seconds later on a breakaway.
"I don't know if [Hammond] played that bad," Suzuki said. "We just kind of got lucky that they were going in and we didn't really play that well to deserve those, but we'll take those all the time."
Ty Smith cut it to 6-3 at 1:53.
Jesper Bratt then made it 6-4 at 10:59, but Clague scored at 13:17 for the 7-4 final.
NOTES: Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler did not play in the third period because of an undisclosed injury. "There is concern and we won't know probably until tomorrow what his status will be, but it was a pretty big blow to our back end," Ruff said. … The Canadiens set a season high for goals in a game. They had scored six goals three times. … New Jersey forward Nico Hischier had two assists for an NHL career-high 33 and tied his career high of 52 points set as a rookie in 2017-18 (20 goals, 32 assists). … It was Greer's first point in seven games with the Devils, including one game last season. He has seven points (two goals, five assists) in 44 NHL games with Colorado and New Jersey. … The Devils were 9-0-3 in the past 12 games against the Canadiens, which was their longest current point streak against one opponent. … Devils defenseman Damon Severson had an assist to reach 30 in the NHL for the first time in eight seasons. … Devils forward Fabian Zetterlund was recalled from Utica of the American Hockey League on Wednesday. He had four shots and two hits in 15:01 in his first game since Nov. 24.