Canadiens Winless In 9 Take Tie

December 19, 1998 / 11:13 PM EST / AP

Even though he scored the tying goal late in the third period, Montreal's Turner Stevenson was in no mood to celebrate.

"We had a heck of a comeback in the third period, but it's kind of like kissing your sister," Stevenson said after giving Montreal a 1-1 tie Saturday night with the New Jersey Devils, extending the Canadiens' winless streak to nine games.

"Getting a tie is nice, but we need wins. We have to get back in the playoff race and ties aren't going to do it."

Stevenson skated in over the Devils' blue line and passed to Patrick Poulin, who skated behind the net and found Stevenson alone in the slot. Stevenson beat a screened Martin Brodeur at 13:46.

"We got a bit of a break scoring the goal but we're still disappointed," Stevenson said. "We started off the first period slowly. Take away that period and I think we played as well as we have for a long time."

Rookie Vadim Sharifijanov gave New Jersey the lead midway through the second. Sharifijanov, a former first-round draft pick in 1994 who entered the game with one goal in 13 games, skated down the right wing after a poor Montreal line change and beat goalie Jeff Hackett with a high slap shot.

The Devils had a two-man advantage less than a minute later, but couldn't score.

New Jersey squandered another chance in the third when Canadiens defenseman Igor Ulanov was assessed a double minor.

"I think it was a downer for us to not create anything on that four-minute power play," said Brodeur, a Montreal native who has allowed only two goals in three games against Montreal this season.

"They came back and you have to be careful after not doing well on the power play. You have to be careful because it just gives them more life. They got the break on the goal."

Hackett, acquired from Chicago in late November, was named the game's first star. He made several good saves in the first period when the Canadiens were outshot 13-6. He frustrated New Jersey's top scorer, Petr Sykora, on at least three different occasions.

"We're playing hard and getting where we want to be," Hackett said. "We're going to be a heck of a hockey team when we get healthy again. We struggled in the first tonight, but we came back."

The Devils failed to win for only the second time in 15 games when leading after two periods.

"You never want to give a point away," said Devils coach Robbie Ftorek. "We don't play the game to tie, we play it to win.

"We played hard and we were in a really good position to win. We just weren't aggressive enough on the tying goal, but they made a nice little play."