MONTREAL (AP) — Antti Niemi felt good after his first start of the season — and a win.Niemi made 25 saves http://www.officialsabres.com/authentic-adidas-rasmus-ristolainen-jersey , and Paul Byron and Jonathan Drouin scored in the shootout to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.Niemi, getting the start with Carey Price out with the flu, also stopped both shots in the shootout — on Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby.“It was a tough first half, didn’t see many pucks and I gave up a few goals,” Niemi said. “Not what you normally want to see. In the third, I started seeing a few more pucks and I was feeling good.“I have to be really happy with my night.”With the score tied 3-3, the Canadiens’ goalie made 14 stops in the third period and another three in a frantic overtime period that saw Montreal fail to score on a 4-on-3 power play.After Byron scored first in the shootout for Montreal, Niemi forced Malkin to the outside and completely took away his shooting angle. Following Drouin’s goal, Crosby needed to score to send it to a third round but the Penguins’ captain found Niemi’s glove instead.“Stay with them, get a good gap and go from there,” Niemi said of his shootout saves. “Nothing special.”Tomas Tatar had two goals and an assist www.blackhawksshoponline.com , and Brendan Gallagher had a goal and an assist for the Canadiens.Dominik Simon, Kris Letang and Phil Kessel scored in regulation for the Penguins, and Casey DeSmith had 37 saves through overtime.Making the 13th start of his NHL career, the 27-year-old DeSmith made big saves when it mattered most to help Pittsburgh earn a point.With seven minutes left in the game, DeSmith robbed Artturi Lehkonen twice to keep the teams tied. In overtime, DeSmith frustrated Max Domi from in close.“That was wild,” said DeSmith, who made 35 saves in a 4-2 win over Vegas on Thursday. “Really exciting game for the fans. Happy we got a point but I hate losing as much as everyone else. I was seeing the puck really well tonight. Happy with how my game’s progressing.”Added Penguins coach Mike Sullivan of his goalie: “I thought he was terrific.”Montreal also defeated Pittsburgh 5-1 last Saturday.Simon and Letang scored in the first period to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead. Daniel Sprong fed Simon in front of the goal with a one-handed scoop pass and the 24-year-old beat Niemi on the backhand at 3:13. Letang doubled Pittsburgh’s lead with 4:44 left with a shot on Niemi’s blocker side.The Canadiens came out buzzing in the second period, scoring three straight goals before Kessel tied it again. Montreal outshot Pittsburgh 19-4 in the second.Just 11 seconds into the middle period, Tatar beat Letang to a loose puck in front of the net, then fired past DeSmith for his first in a Canadiens uniform.Gallagher tied it 2-2 at 7:38 after jumping on a rebound of Jeff Petry’s point shot.Tatar got his second of the game Chicago Blackhawks T-Shirts Womens , on the power play, by firing the puck off DeSmith and in from the side of the net at 8:51 to push Montreal ahead.“We knew we weren’t good enough in the first and we talked about how we needed to be better,” said Tatar, who joined Montreal in the offseason trade that sent former captain Max Pacioretty to Vegas. “We got a pretty good jump at the start of the second period.“Everyone played well in the second period and we had a lot of pressure. We all deserve the credit.”With the Penguins on a man advantage, Kessel made it 3-3 from the slot at 11:14.Montreal failed to score on a 5-on-3 power play that lasted 1:49 to end the second period.It looked like the Canadiens had taken a 4-3 lead in the third period when defenseman Victor Mete put the puck past DeSmith, but the goal was called back for goaltender interference on Andrew Shaw after a challenge by Sullivan.NOTES: Montreal also had a goal overturned in its previous, also due to goalie interference against Shaw, in its 3-0 loss to Los Angeles. … Pittsburgh D Justin Schultz left the game in the first period and did not return. Schultz’s leg folded awkwardly as fell to the ice after taking a hit by Tomas Plekanec, who was making his 999th career start.UP NEXTPenguins: Host Vancouver on Tuesday night.Canadiens: Host Detroit on Monday night. NEWARK, N.J. (AP) The worst season in nearly three decades is just a recent memory, and so is the five-year drought.The New Jersey Devils are back in the playoffs Sam Reinhart Jersey , and again in the hunt for the Stanley Cup. It’s like old times.The Devils completed a remarkable comeback season by beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 on Thursday night to clinch their first postseason berth since making it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2012.It capped an offseason and regular season that saw general manager Ray Shero reshape half his 25-man roster through free agency, the draft and trades and have John Hynes make all the right moves to keep his team in a playoff position every day of the season.Not bad for a club that won 28 games and finished last in the Eastern Conference in 2016-17.”This is the best, the best,” said veteran defenseman Ben Lovejoy, who won a Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh in 2016. ”My first stint in Pittsburgh and Anaheim and then again in Pittsburgh, I never appreciated what baseball players did. I thought it was stupid when they would come in and have champagne when they made the playoffs. I get it now. Making the playoffs is hard.”The Devils can point to so many players in bouncing back from their worst season since 1988-89. Taylor Hall (39 goals, 54 assists) had a career year that teammates feel merits the Hart Trophy as the league MVP. Top draft pick Nico Hischier overcame a slow start to have 19 goals and 51 points. Free agent Will Butcher set a team record for rookie defensemen with 44 points.The unsung hero was goaltender Keith Kinkaid, who stepped for an injured Cory Schneider and carried the team over the final 10 weeks, going 10-1-1 in the last 12 games and helping the New York-metropolitan area avoid being shut out of the postseason for the first time since the Devils took up residence in New Jersey in 1982. The Rangers and Islanders will miss the postseason.”It’s fun, but playoffs are a new breed,” said Kinkaid Womens Zemgus Girgensons Jersey , who re-signed with the team in the offseason despite being an unrestricted free agent.There are only two players left from the Devils’ 2011-12 team: defenseman and captain Andy Greene, and Travis Zajac, who centers the line Hynes’ uses against the opponent’s top line.While there have been lean years, Zajac said the Devils rediscovered themselves this season. They practiced and played hard, and made sure opponents knew they were in for a battle every game.The results have been a 44-28-9 record that includes a 25-8-9 mark in one-goal games. It was a record that reminded many of the old Devils, a franchise that made the playoffs 20 of 22 times and won three Cups between 1989-90 and 2011-12.This group, however, skates faster and is relentless.Last year, the Devils were disappointing underachievers. Their biggest sin was failing to compete every night. And they paid the price, especially down the stretch when they went 3-17-4.Hynes and Shero changed that. It started with the roster makeover that included the signing of veteran Brian Boyle, and an attitude readjustment.”It’s a different skill set and youth http://www.officialflames.com/authentic-adidas-jaromir-jagr-jersey ,” said Shero, who also strengthened the team during the season by acquiring defenseman Sami Vatanen and forwards Michael Grabner and Patrick Maroon in trades. ”But they had to fight, they clawed and scraped to get what they’ve got and they’ve earned it.”With a game to play, the Devils won’t learn their first-round opponent until Saturday at the earliest. They are the top wild-card team in the Eastern Conference, and they will at least stay there if they win at Washington on Saturday night. They also could go up or down depending on what Columbus, Philadelphia, Florida and Pittsburgh do.It really doesn’t matter. The Devils are just looking forward to the postseason.”You go into this year thinking it’s going to be a bigger challenge,” said Boyle, who provided inspiration by overcoming cancer early in the season. ”Plenty of people were writing us off. It makes it pretty sweet to clinch. I have just tried to tell everyone: `It’s going to be so much fun. You have never played hockey this fun in your life until you play playoff hockey.”’—