The Canadian had too few answers against the forecheck of his opponent, Saturday night at the Bell Center, and he suffered a sixth loss in a row.
Nathan Bastian and Nico Hischier scored in the first period and the New Jersey Devils beat Montreal 3-1.
Martin St-Louis’ squad looked worse than their previous two shootout losses to the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers.
The Devils’ forecheck led to several turnovers from the Canadian out of bounds. And when the Habs were finally able to attack, Akira Schmid closed the door in front of the visitors’ net.
Denis Gurianov was the only one to hit the target for the Canadian (26-34-6). Jake Allen made 34 saves.
At the other end of the ice, Schmid stopped 23 shots in front of the Devils net (43-16-6). Tomas Tatar added an insurance goal into an empty net.
No penalties were handed out during the game.
The Canadiens will host the Colorado Avalanche at the Bell Center on Monday, before heading to Pittsburgh for a duel against the Penguins on Tuesday.
A well-honed opponent
The Devils bothered the Habs with their forecheck in the first stretch of the game, which lasted 1:40.
The visitors took a 1-0 lead after 8:24 of play. Kaiden Guhle lost the disc behind the Canadian’s net. Bastian hit the bull’s eye by returning to the front.
The Canadian missed a few chances to score in the first period. Anthony Richard got the best chance when he broke away. Schmid, however, made the save.
Another turnover from Guhle led to the Devils’ second goal, with 61 seconds left in the first period. His pass out of the zone did not find a taker. Seconds later, a Damon Severson throw-in deflected off Hischier’s skate before ending behind the goal line.
The Devils bottled the Habs in their territory a few times in the second period, without firing any particularly dangerous shots.
The Canadian finally gave a sign of life by reducing the gap to a single goal with 1:37 to go in the second period. Rem Pitlick stole the puck from Severson, then set the table for Gurianov, who beat Schmid with a good one-timer.
Allen allowed the Canadian to hope to complete the comeback by making some difficult saves in the third period. He saved his finest save for Jesper Bratt, stretching the right leg to frustrate the breakaway Devils forward with less than five minutes left.
Tatar delivered the knockout blow with 90 seconds left on the clock, scoring into an empty net. A few seconds earlier, Jonathan Drouin had hit the post on a backhand throw.