MONTREAL (AP) Taylor Hall couldn’t have picked a better time to get his first career short-handed goal.Hall scored on a breakaway late in the third period to lift the New Jersey Devils to a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday night.The 26-year-old forward came out of the penalty box after serving a penalty for too many men – in which Montreal had a 5-on-3 advantage for 51 seconds – took a a pass from Travis Zajac and beat Carey Price on the blocker side with 4:07 remaining.”I’m not much of a short-handed threat but it’s nice to get one there Peter Budaj Jersey Womens ,” said Hall, who extended his point streak to eight games. ”Two minutes feeling shame and trying to think about what you’re going to do when you get out, and then you get a breakaway chance like that after a great kill by our guys.”The goal was Hall’s fourth in his last three games and 37th on the season, giving him career highs in goals and points (89).”You’re always thinking this is the time I’m going to get a breakaway out of the box,” Hall said. ”Usually you go in for a defensive zone shift and you’re hemmed in for a while. Just a great kill by our 5-on-3 group.”Nico Hischier tied the score early in the third and Keith Kinkaid stopped 25 shots in his sixth consecutive start for the Devils. New Jersey increased its lead to seven points on Florida for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Devils, vying for their first trip to the postseason since reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2012, have three games remaining – two fewer than the Panthers.”We’re excited about it but it’s about our game,” Devils coach John Hynes said. ”You can’t get too wrapped up in those situations. We need to make sure that our focus level is our game, and where we’re going, and making sure we’re ready to continue to play.”Daniel Carr scored for the Canadiens, who have already been eliminated from playoff contention. Carey Price finished with 30 saves while playing his 556th game with Montreal Andrew Hammond Jersey Womens , pulling into a tie with Jacques Plante for most games by a goaltender in franchise history.”It was a good performance from this team,” Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. ”Price was very good. We battled hard and did some good things. It was a very physical game. It’s unfortunate because we played a good game but still found a way to lose.”Hischier tied the score 1-1 just 26 seconds into the third. With his back to the goal, the top overall pick in last June’s NHL draft, got the blade of his stick on a shot from Sami Vatanen and deflected the puck past Price for his 19th.Hischier, the only Devils player to dress for all 79 games this season, nearly gave New Jersey the lead on two occasions in the third. He was stopped by Price on a breakaway before hitting the post a minute later.”Every single guy in here wanted this win,” Hischier said. ”A huge two points. At the end we just found a way. That’s all that matters at the end of the season, to win games.”Both teams were playing the second game of a back-to-back series. Montreal lost 5-2 to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday while New Jersey beat the New York Islanders 4-3.Carr scored a contentious goal with 9 seconds left in the first period to get the Canadiens on the scoreboard. With Montreal on a rush on a power play, Carr took a pass from Artturi Lehkonen in the slot and fired a slap shot, glove-side on Kinkaid, in the top corner of the net.Hynes challenged for offside on the play J.T. Brown Jersey Womens , but the goal stood after a review. Defenseman Mike Reilly, playing his 100th NHL game, got an assist on Carr’s fifth of the season.NOTES: The Canadiens finished 4-8-2 this season in the second game of a back-to-back. … Kerby Rychel, 23, recalled from Laval of the AHL on Friday, made his Montreal debut. … There was a moment of silence before the game for former Montreal Expos and MLB star Rusty Staub, who passed away Thursday.UP NEXTDevils: Host the New York Rangers on Tuesday night.Canadiens: Host Winnipeg on Tuesday night. SEA ISLAND, Ga. (AP) — Seattle is one step away from landing an NHL franchise.Team and city executives have already secured more than 30,000 season-ticket deposits, got an arena plan passed through local government and wowed the executive committee of owners. It all pays off Tuesday when the NHL Board of Governors is expected to approve Seattle as the home of the league’s 32nd franchise.“Seattle’s one of the fastest-growing cities in the country,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said recently. “It gives us a geographic balance. It creates a nice geographic rivalry with Vancouver. I know Vancouver’s particularly excited about the possibility. The ownership group Tomas Plekanec Jersey Womens , the plans for the arena — it’s all of the above. It’s never one factor. If you’re going to have a successful expansion application, all of the bases need to be touched and all of them need to be checked off as being appropriate and right.”Timing is the only question.Renovations to the downtown arena that will be the team’s home are scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2020. The uncertainty could lead the NHL to leave the door open to a 2020 or 2021 start or push it back just to be safe.“Right now everything we’ve done is kind of geared toward 2020,” Seattle Hockey Partners senior adviser Dave Tippett said. “If we can do it in 2020 (we will), but the other thing is you don’t want to start it being a month on the road or something, either.”It’s more about when than if, given the success of the Vegas Golden Knights‘ expansion and the $650 million the new owners will pay to join. Seattle is the largest U.S. city without a major winter sports team since the NBA’s SuperSonics left in 2008 and it gives the NHL another big TV market.“It’s a big city now. It’s a relatively wealthy place. There’s an awful lot going on between Boeing and the whole computer industry and all the rest of that stuff,” NHL Players’ Association executive director Don Fehr said. “It nests very nicely with the teams that are already in the Pacific Northwest. And it gives us 32, which gives us the balance that you would want. In addition to that, when you’re looking at markets, if you really want to be a North American league, you want to be in the markets that matter when you can figure out a way to do it Tomas Tatar Jersey Womens , and Seattle is certainly one of those.”Tippett could feel the excitement building when he was back in Arizona over the Thanksgiving holiday, noting that people told him on the golf course they hoped Seattle would get a team.The board’s executive committee voted unanimously in October to push the expansion bid forward and Bettman said he anticipated the full board doing the same. Approval requires a three-quarters vote.“This can work long term,” Seattle Hockey President and CEO Tod Leiweke said. “We have the right building plan, we have the support from the city, the fans are there.”Fans will be watching Tuesday morning at a Seattle tavern when the board is expected to give final approval. Next steps will include moving forward on arena and practice facility plans and piecing together a hockey operations department that Tippett will likely be in charge of.Before considering expansion, the board opens its annual two-day December meeting Monday with updates on the state of the league’s business and hockey operations. The board is also expected to be briefed on collective bargaining talks and the tentative settlement of a concussion lawsuit involving retired players.