Music: {allcanada} Canadiens rally, edge Devils in shootout

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NEWARK, N.J. -- David Desharnais scored the tying goal in the final minute of regulation and the winner in the shootout to give the Montreal Canadiens a 4-3 victory against the New Jersey Devils in a wild game at Prudential Center on Wednesday that featured five goals in the third period, including three in the final four minutes.

Lars Eller also scored in the shootout for Montreal and goalie Peter Budaj made a pad save on Patrik Elias to end it, giving the Canadiens their third straight win and improving their record to 7-0-1 in their past eight games.

Devils rookie Reid Boucher, who was making his NHL debut, scored the lone goal in the shootout for New Jersey. It was the Devils first shootout goal of the season; they fell to 0-5 in games decided by the shootout. The Canadiens improved to 2-3 in shootout games.

New Jersey scored twice on goals by Andrei Loktionov and Michael Ryder in under six minutes to take a 2-1 lead with 10:10 to play in regulation, but the entertainment was yet to come.

Eller scored with 3:50 left to tie the game at 2-2. He beat Devils goalie Cory Schneider (27 saves) on his own rebound with a backhand from the slot.

The Devils came back and took the lead with 66 seconds left in regulation when Elias scored an unassisted goal on Budaj (31 saves), cashing in on a giveaway by Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban, who had just gotten the puck from Budaj and was deep in the Canadiens' zone.

However, Montreal shook it off and came back to tie the game again with 35.6 seconds left when Desharnais got a piece of Brian Gionta's slap shot from the right point to beat Schneider. The play went under review to see if Desharnais deflected it with a high stick, but replays concluded that his stick was below the crossbar.

Until Loktionov scored at 4:19 of the third, the only goal of the game belonged to Gionta, who scored 10:36 into the first period.

Loktionov's game-tying goal capped a strong forechecking shift by the newly created line of Loktionov with Ryder and Boucher.

Boucher and Ryder kept the puck alive behind the goal, allowing Loktionov to come in from the left side and rim the puck up around the right wing boards. It found defenseman Marek Zidlicky at the right point, and Zidlicky sent the puck back down to Loktionov, who curled around the top of the circle and sent the shot that split Montreal defenseman Raphael Diaz and Francis Bouillon and beat Budaj through his five-hole.

That same line combined on the go-ahead goal with 10:10 left in the third.

Ryder beat Budaj on the glove side with a shot into the far top corner from the left circle. Loktionov kept the puck in after backtracking toward the left point and Boucher fed Ryder from the left-wing half-wall, picking up his first career assist.

Devils coach Peter DeBoer put the line of Loktionov between Boucher and Ryder together after the second period. In fact, the only line DeBoer kept intact was his top line of Travis Zajac, Jaromir Jagr and Dainius Zubrus after Budaj held the Devils scoreless on 19 shots through two periods.

Schneider also had 19 saves through 40 minutes, but he gave up Gionta's goal 10:36 into the game.

Gionta was the third man in on a 3-on-2 and Daniel Briere found him knifing down the middle into the slot with a hard pass from the left-wing half-wall. The pass went through Canadiens center Tomas Plekanec, who was being covered by Devils defenseman Anton Volchenkov, and Gionta was able to get his stick on it to send it in.

Schneider appeared to get a piece of the puck with his glove, but not enough to prevent it from going into the right side of the net. Jagr was a tad too late in recovering to defend the pass; he reached with his stick to try to stop the puck as it crossed through the slot, but missed by a few inches.

Budaj turned aside several quality chances by the Devils in the second period, especially in the waning moments.

He made a pad save to deny defenseman Mark Fayne, who came down the middle on a near end-to-end rush. Loktionov collected the puck on the left side of the crease and appeared to have an open net to shoot at, but he never could get off a shot while Budaj dove back into the crease.

Jagr had a good look from the area high between the circles with eight seconds remaining in the period, but Budaj gobbled it up into his chest.

A Mary Christmas - Mary J. Blige