NEW YORK, 21 March 2004 — Yanic Perreault’s goal at 4:35 of the opening period helped the Montreal Canadiens tie the New Jersey Devils 1-1 in East Rutherford on Friday, denying Martin Brodeur his 400th career win.
Brodeur was trying to become the youngest goalie to win 400 career NHL games, but still sits at 399 victories after making 30 saves to help the Devils earn the single point.
New Jersey climbed to within two points of Toronto and Ottawa in the Eastern Conference with the tie, while the Canadiens remained two points behind the Devils in seventh place.
The teams were to meet again the next day in Montreal.
Perreault’s goal held up until the second period, when Jay Pandolfo scored at 1:19 to tie the game.
That was the only shot to beat Montreal goalie Mathieu Garon, who made 29 saves, including two big stops from in close on Scott Niedermayer in the overtime period.
Montreal out-shot the Devils 31-30, but it was New Jersey that had the better chances in the overtime, out-shooting the Canadiens 5-4.
Garon had just 14 NHL wins over four seasons of part-time NHL action, playing behind number one goalie Jose Theodore.
In other NHL action, Jason Blake fired a hat trick to lead the New York Islanders to a 3-1 win over the Minnesota Wild.
Ilya Kovalchuk scored his league leading 39th goal of the season with 23.7 seconds left to give the Atlanta Thrashers a 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers.
Aleksey Morozov scored a power-play goal at 1:17 of overtime to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins a 4-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.
Tyler Arnason scored his third goal of the game 1:44 into overtime to give the Chicago Blackhawks a 4-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks. Ethan Moreau had two goals and an assist as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Nashville Predators 5-4.
In Anaheim, the San Jose Sharks recorded a 4-2 win over the Mighty Ducks.
