MONTREAL — Nobody’s perfect.
The Devils erased a two-goal deficit in the third period to put themselves in position to preserve their unblemished record, but Andrei Markov scored 4:22 into overtime on a power play to give the Canadiens the 4-3 win last night.
Markov was at the edge of the crease and lifted the rebound of Rene Bourque’s shot off the end boards into an open side for his fourth goal. The Canadiens went on the man advantage after Andy Greene took down Erik Cole at 4:01.
The Canadiens took a 3-1 lead early in the third period, but David Clarkson scored on a power play and Dainius Zubrus tied the game at 13:02. Patrick Elias also scored for the Devils (3-0-1) and had two assists to reach 900 career points.
The Canadiens (3-1-0) posted a rare win over veteran goalie Martin Brodeur, who is 43-19-5 against his hometown team in his career.
“We played against a good hockey team that hadn’t lost and that went to the Stanley Cup final last season, so it was a good measuring stick for us,” said Montreal coach Michel Therrien. “We showed a lot of resilience.”
Brendan Gallagher scored his first NHL goal and linemate Brandon Prust, the former Rangers fan favorite, got his first with the Canadiens. Ryan White also scored for Montreal.
Montreal had a 32-25 shots advantage, including 16-7 in the opening period when it took a 2-0 lead.
The Canadiens scored 2:25 into the game when Alexei Emelin’s shot was tipped by Travis Moen and went off Brodeur to White for his first of the season.
Emelin flipped the puck to the far blue line where Greene lost it to Galchenyuk, who slipped a pass into the slot for the onrushing Gallagher to fire into an open side at 13:35. It was a first goal in three NHL games for the 20-year-old.
The roles reversed in the second period as the Devils camped out in Montreal’s end and got a goal at 3:26 when Elias tipped a Mark Fayne point shot past Carey Price.
Galchenyuk intercepted a clearing attempt and slipped the puck ahead to Prust to bat in two minutes into the third period.
“We’ve got to keep doing the same thing — keeping it simple out there, moving pucks and hunting down pucks,” Prust said.
But Galchenyuk and Prust were both off for high-sticking when Clarkson banged in an Elias feed during a two-man advantage at 5:23.
Zubrus tied it at 13:02 on a feed from behind the net by Elias.