Pavel Zacha scored two goals, Taylor Hall had a goal and an assist, and the New Jersey Devils defeated the visiting Montreal Canadiens 5-2 Wednesday night in Newark, N.J.

Kyle Palmieri and Nico Hischier also scored for the Devils, and Marcus Johansson added two assists. Keith Kinkaid made 24 saves in goal.

Jonathan Drouin and Max Domi scored for the Canadiens. Domi has at least one point in 11 straight games. Drouin also earned an assist, and Andrew Shaw added two assists. Carey Price stopped 23 shots for the Canadiens.

The teams scored 24 seconds apart in the first period. After a poor Canadiens' clearing attempt, Palmieri deftly deflected Andy Greene's point shot for his 12th goal this season at 6:26.

Moments later, after controlling a bouncing puck in the neutral zone, Drouin snapped a sharp-angle shot from the left circle to the top right corner for his eighth goal this season.

The Devils regained the lead at 16:55 of the first on Hischier's fourth goal this season on a perfect feed from behind the net by Hall, who made a spin move after capturing a loose puck. Hischier was returning to the lineup after missing four games with an upper-body injury.

New Jersey scored three second-period goals to take a 5-1 lead.

Egor Yakovlev earned his first NHL point when he set up Hall, who knocked in his sixth goal of the season from the slot at 8:59.

Zacha scored his first goal of the game when he batted in the puck at 10:01 after whiffing on his first attempt at converting Johansson's pass.

With Montreal's Tomas Tatar serving a penalty for closing his hand on the puck, Zacha burst through an opening up the middle to score his fourth goal this season at 13:47.

Montreal's Kenny Agostino thought he had scored early in the third, but the referees and a video review disagreed,

The Canadiens did score when Domi notched his 11th goal of the season at 10:52 of the third.

--Field Level Media