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MONTREAL (AP) Taylor Hall couldn’t have picked a better time to get his first career short-handed goal.Hall scored on a breakaway late in the third period to lift the New Jersey Devils to a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday night.The 26-year-old forward came out of the penalty box after serving a penalty for too many men – in which Montreal had a 5-on-3 advantage for 51 seconds – took a a pass from Travis Zajac and beat Carey Price on the blocker side with 4:07 remaining.”I’m not much of a short-handed threat but it’s nice to get one there Mikko Rantanen Jersey ,” said Hall, who extended his point streak to eight games. ”Two minutes feeling shame and trying to think about what you’re going to do when you get out, and then you get a breakaway chance like that after a great kill by our guys.”The goal was Hall’s fourth in his last three games and 37th on the season, giving him career highs in goals and points (89).”You’re always thinking this is the time I’m going to get a breakaway out of the box,” Hall said. ”Usually you go in for a defensive zone shift and you’re hemmed in for a while. Just a great kill by our 5-on-3 group.”Nico Hischier tied the score early in the third and Keith Kinkaid stopped 25 shots in his sixth consecutive start for the Devils. New Jersey increased its lead to seven points on Florida for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Devils, vying for their first trip to the postseason since reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2012, have three games remaining – two fewer than the Panthers.”We’re excited about it but it’s about our game,” Devils coach John Hynes said. ”You can’t get too wrapped up in those situations. We need to make sure that our focus level is our game, and where we’re going, and making sure we’re ready to continue to play.”Daniel Carr scored for the Canadiens, who have already been eliminated from playoff contention. Carey Price finished with 30 saves while playing his 556th game with Montreal, pulling into a tie with Jacques Plante for most games by a goaltender in franchise history.”It was a good performance from this team,” Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. ”Price was very good. We battled hard and did some good things. It was a very physical game. It’s unfortunate because we played a good game but still found a way to lose.”Hischier tied the score 1-1 just 26 seconds into the third. With his back to the goal, the top overall pick in last June’s NHL draft Nathan MacKinnon Jersey , got the blade of his stick on a shot from Sami Vatanen and deflected the puck past Price for his 19th.Hischier, the only Devils player to dress for all 79 games this season, nearly gave New Jersey the lead on two occasions in the third. He was stopped by Price on a breakaway before hitting the post a minute later.”Every single guy in here wanted this win,” Hischier said. ”A huge two points. At the end we just found a way. That’s all that matters at the end of the season, to win games.”Both teams were playing the second game of a back-to-back series. Montreal lost 5-2 to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday while New Jersey beat the New York Islanders 4-3.Carr scored a contentious goal with 9 seconds left in the first period to get the Canadiens on the scoreboard. With Montreal on a rush on a power play, Carr took a pass from Artturi Lehkonen in the slot and fired a slap shot, glove-side on Kinkaid, in the top corner of the net.Hynes challenged for offside on the play, but the goal stood after a review. Defenseman Mike Reilly, playing his 100th NHL game, got an assist on Carr’s fifth of the season.NOTES: The Canadiens finished 4-8-2 this season in the second game of a back-to-back. … Kerby Rychel, 23, recalled from Laval of the AHL on Friday, made his Montreal debut. … There was a moment of silence before the game for former Montreal Expos and MLB star Rusty Staub Authentic Alexander Wennberg Jersey , who passed away Thursday.UP NEXTDevils: Host the New York Rangers on Tuesday night.Canadiens: Host Winnipeg on Tuesday night. Mired in a long losing streak to close 2018, the Edmonton Oilers shook things up again.After swinging two deals to shore up a depleted blueline, the Oilers look to avoid their sixth straight loss Monday night against the visiting Winnipeg Jets.Despite two goals from captain Connor McDavid, Edmonton’s slide continued Saturday with a 7-4 setback to the San Jose Sharks. Even though McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins have combined for more than 45 percent of the Oilers’ points this season, coach Ken Hitchcock, who took over behind the bench six weeks ago, continues to tout the need for grit over glitz.Article continues below ...“When you play with skill, you play with high risk and we’re not built that way,” he said Sunday. “When we get down a goal or we get down two goals, we’ve tried to break it wide open, and now we’re down three or four goals.”The losing streak has helped drop Edmonton (18-17-3) into 11th place in the Western Conference.“If you’re going to continue to collect points, you’re going to have to defend,” Hitchcock said. “In this conference Los Angeles Kings T-Shirts Womens , you can’t skill your way through games. You’ve got to work your way through games.”Hitchcock’s comments came after the Oilers acquired Alex Petrovic from the Florida Panthers for blueliner Chris Wideman and a conditional third-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. Petrovic had one assist in 26 games with the Panthers this season and is well-known to Nugent-Hopkins.“Big body, can really shoot the puck and he’s a smart player who knows when to move it and jump up in the play,” Nugent-Hopkins said of his juniors teammate, adding that Petrovic plays with an edge.Hitchcock said Petrovic will make his team “sturdier” as the Oilers’ defensive corps has been decimated by injuries. Kris Russell could be back Monday from an undisclosed injury that’s sidelined him since Dec. 11, but high-scoring Oscar Klefbom (hand) will be out for up to another month.Later on Sunday, Edmonton picked up defenseman Brandon Manning and prospect Robin Norrell from the Chicago Blackhawks for forward Drake Caggiula and blueliner Jason Garrison. Now in his seventh season, Manning had three points in only 27 games with Chicago after career highs of seven goals and 12 assists with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2017-18.Three years ago, Manning and McDavid were involved in a hard collision along the end boards in Philadelphia. McDavid, then a rookie, missed almost three months with a broken collarbone.Winnipeg (24-12-2) will also have to get by without a key on defense after Dustin Byfuglien suffered a lower-body injury during a 3-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. Byfuglien, who has four goals and 25 assists, won’t need surgery but is expected to be out until after next month’s All-Star break.“We’re going to miss the guy, for sure, in almost every facet of your game — size Sam Reinhart Jersey , physicality, offense, zone time; If it gets a little wobbly out there, calming a game down,” coach Paul Maurice said. “But we’ve got other men who can each do a piece of what Dustin does.”The Jets, who are tied with the Calgary Flames atop the West, have won seven of their last eight on the road. Maurice said the Oilers shouldn’t be taken lightly despite not winning since Dec. 14.“Anybody on the outside (of the top eight in the conference) now is going to fight like playoff hockey right until the All-Star break,” he said.Maurice could also be calling on the Jets to take up that mindset as they’ve been held to one goal in each of their last three games and four of the past five. Patrik Laine leads the team with 24 goals but has only three in December, while Mark Scheifele (22 goals) scored once in his last five games.Heading into the finale of the season series, Winnipeg is 4-0-1 in its last five meetings with Edmonton.