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Elias caps late surge as Devils edge Canadiens

Dec 7, 2006 - 3:09 AM EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- David Aebischer was less than six minutes away from his first shutout of the season. In the end, he was not even able to leave with a victory.

Zach Parise scored late in the third period and Patrik Elias tallied with eight seconds remaining in overtime as the New Jersey Devils continued their home dominance with a 2-1 triumph over the Montreal Canadiens.

Staked to a 1-0 lead on Radek Bonk's goal early in the first period, Aebischer stopped the first 24 shots he faced before the Devils broke through. After Scott Gomez's shot deflected off the stick of defenseman Sheldon Souray, Parise beat the netminder with a backhander from the slot with 5:48 left in the third, knotting the contest.

"It took (almost 55 minutes), but I think we started to take over the game toward the end and put a lot of pressure on them," Parise said. "Scott did his usual end-to-end and he threw it out in front. It just popped out on my (stick) in the slot."

The assist was the 300th of Gomez's career.

With the Devils on a power play and time winding down in overtime, Gomez won a faceoff in the Canadiens' zone to Elias, who passed the puck to blue-liner Brian Rafalski before one-timing a return feed past Aebischer from the top of the slot to seal the victory.

"It was just a good faceoff win by Scotty and we moved the puck well there," Elias said. "A couple of good passes and I set myself up for a one-timer. Raffy made a good pass and the puck found its way in."

"When they scored (to tie it), I think maybe we put a little bit more pressure on us," Aebischer said. "We went into overtime and things just happened. It's just one of those games where one shot made a difference."

Gomez credited Elias for his words of wisdom prior to the faceoff.

"Patty gave me the best advice ever. He said, 'Make sure you win the draw,'" Gomez said. "So I told him, 'Thanks for the advice.' I got it out there and Patty set it all up. Give Patty credit, he's starting to turn that tide again where he's the go-to guy when the game's on the line."

A former Devil, Souray again was integral in the play as he sat in the penalty box for hooking.

"That's a penalty I think I would take 100 times out of 100," Souray said. "I would probably do that every single time."

Gomez and Rafalski each had two assists and Martin Brodeur stopped 18 shots for New Jersey, which improved to 10-1-1 in its final season at Continental Airlines Arena. The team will move to a brand-new arena in Newark for the 2007-08 campaign.

"The building's been good to us, I guess," Brodeur said. "It better be because we haven't been doing too well on the road, so that offsets it a little bit. It's definitely nice for the people who come and support us."

"I guess we're tough to play at home," Parise added. "I think we're comfortable at home, and now if we can just string together a couple of road wins and get that back up to .500, ..."

It was the 461st career win for Brodeur, tying him with Florida's Ed Belfour for second place on the all-time list.

"Montreal just sat back a lot in the game, didn't really do much offensively," Brodeur said. "They just tried to protect their lead and we kept on taking it to them."

Aebischer finished with 29 saves for the Canadiens, who have dropped three of four.

"David has been great since the start of the season," Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau said. "He's been solid. If it wasn't for him at the start of the season, ... He's been hot, been really solid."

Montreal, which also dropped a 2-1 decision to New Jersey at home on November 4, needed just four minutes to take the lead in this one. Alexander Perezhogin, who entered with goals in each of his previous two games, grabbed the puck in the right corner and passed in front to Bonk, who tipped it past Brodeur for his first tally in seven contests.

Rookie Travis Zajac nearly drew the Devils even 3 1/2 minutes later, but Aebischer made a sliding save with his right pad to preserve the advantage. Brian Gionta also had a chance to get New Jersey on the board 14 minutes into the second, but his shot ran off the goalpost.

"I think it was two teams playing very conservatively, trying to be really disciplined," Montreal's Michael Ryder said. "It wasn't a very exciting game. There weren't a lot of chances either way and they pushed a little bit in the third period."