Making his NHL debut, big defenseman Jarred Tinordi set up Tomas Plekanec’s tiebreaking goal in the third period, and the Canadiens extended their winning streak to five games with a 2-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night.

“What a start for the kid,” Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said of the 20-year-old son of former NHL defenseman Mark Tinordi. “We’re all pleased with the way he played the puck at net. It looked routine out there for him.

“He showed a lot of poise for his age and played very solid. He wasn’t nervous. He saw more ice time because you can see him become more comfortable. He made the right decisions.”

The best decision by Jarred Tinordi was understanding that goalie Johan Hedberg’s clearing pass from behind the net took a bad bounce off the sideboards and was heading to open ice above the left circle. The 6-foot-6 Tinordi skated toward the puck from the right side and let go a shot that Plekanec deflected past Hedberg at 6:49.

“I felt pretty comfortable out there,” said Tinordi, who played 19 shifts and almost 15 minutes just two days after being called up from Hamilton. “I think the nervousness and the butterflies were gone after the first couple of shifts.

“I tried not to think about the way I was playing. I knew we scored on the play. I didn’t realize I got an assist. The boys were pretty happy for me. I was just shooting it to get it on net.”

Hedberg said the goal was the type one would expect to decide a tight-checking game.

`We make that play 20 times a game, and sometimes the puck doesn’t want to go your way,” said Hedberg, who finished with 20 saves. “It came back to them and boom boom, it’s in the net. It was one of those games that comes down to a goal like that, and we were weren’t fortunate enough to get it.”

Colby Armstrong also scored for Montreal, and Carey Price made 32 saves. The Canadiens moved into a tie with Pittsburgh for the most points in the Eastern Conference.

Defenseman Peter Harrold scored for New Jersey, which lost for the second time in two nights (0-1-1).

“It’s a tough one to swallow, but their goalie played well and so did ours,” Devils forward Ilya Kovalchuk said.

Price was just a little bit better in making Plekanec’s 12th goal of the season stand up. He stopped 18 shots in the third period, including a chest save through traffic on Patrik Elias with 1:24 left and stoning Adam Henrique and Travis Zajac in close in the final minute.

“They put a little bit of a full-court press on us, but our guys battled hard all night,” Price said. “We’re working hard every night, trying to keep things simple. I think that’s the style of play we have to have. We have good teamwork and that’s what’s working for us.

“I think our team is excellent in coming back after I make a save, collapsing on everything I leave out there, cleaning up the trash. We’re sticking to the game plan and that makes it a lot easier.”

Playing for the third time in four nights, the Devils tied it 1-1 on Harrold’s power-play goal at 3:54 of the second period.

With Ryan White off for holding the stick, Kovalchuk intercepted a clearing pass at the right point and slid the puck across the ice to Harrold. The defenseman got a shot off quickly and squeezed it between Price’s pads for his first goal since Dec. 2, 2010 — a span of only 26 games for the journeyman, who has spent much of his career in the minor leagues.

Armstrong snapped a 39-game goal drought, dating to February 2012, to give the Canadiens the lead at 8:08 of the first period.

Devils defenseman Anton Volchenkov lost his footing shortly after a faceoff. Armstrong retrieved the puck, skated into the right circle and ripped a shot past Hedberg, who made his career-high 12 straight start in place of the injured Martin Brodeur.

Forward Mike Blunden, who grabbed an early-morning flight after being recalled from Hamilton, appeared to screen Hedberg on the play.

“You have to like the way the young guys played,” Canadiens captain Brian Gionta said. “They came through.”

Goal posts kept both teams from taking the lead during the same second-period penalty. Kovalchuk, who leads the NHL with four short-handed goals, just missed another on a 2-on-1 break while Harrold was in the penalty box.

Lars Eller beat Hedberg about a minute later, but that puck also struck a post.

Game notes

The Canadiens have scored first in 21 of 28 games. … Montreal RW Michael Ryder had his streak of 114 consecutive games played snapped because of a lower body injury. He last missed a game in March 2011. … Devils C Andrei Loktionov, who was hurt Friday against Philadelphia, sat out due to an undisclosed injury. … C Harri Pesonen made his NHL debut for New Jersey. .. Harrold was cut badly on the forehead by a shot in the third period, but returned to the game. … The Devils honored former goalie coach Jacques Caron before the game.

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“That’s great,” Nash said on Friday. “You love it when your best player has that confidence and that challenge. In a way, he’s put it out for us to go get now.”

Bryant said in an interview with Sports Illustrated that he is certain the struggling Lakers will make the playoffs. The 15-time All-Star also claimed he has “no fear” of any potential postseason opponent in the competitive Western Conference.

“It’s not a question of if we make the playoffs. We will,” Bryant told Sports Illustrated. “And when we get there, I have no fear of anyone — Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Denver … whoever. I have zero nervousness about that.”

When Nash was asked if he would like to offer a similar guarantee, he laughed.

“Yeah, I guarantee it, too,” Nash said with smile. “What does it mean? Everyone guarantees something at some stage and everyone forgets. I feel the whole guarantee thing is … I don’t know. If I went and guaranteed it would you guys care?”

D’Antoni said he wasn’t big on guarantees but didn’t mind Bryant making one, given the role he will play in making it a reality.

“He has a lot to say about it, so that’s good,” D’Antoni said. “I don’t mind as long as we back it up. I don’t mind at all. I think you have to have that mindset and I think everybody does. I’m not a guarantee kind of guy but I’ll let him do the talking since he’s got to do the walking. Kobe’s good enough. I’m with him all the way.”

Howard echoed Bryant’s sentiments in believing the Lakers will be able to turn around their season and make the playoffs.

“I’m not going to sit up here and say, ‘No, we’re not going to make it,’ ” Howard said. “We got to have faith and if we don’t, we’re not going to make it but I believe that we’re going to turn this around and we’re going to be great.”

The Lakers (26-29) have won six of their last nine games, including Wednesday’s 113-99 victory over the Boston Celtics. Despite the recent hot streak, Los Angeles trails the Houston Rockets by 3½ games for the eighth spot in the conference standings.

Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak thought Bryant’s confidence was “great,” but recognized it would be an uphill climb.

“We dug a hole for ourselves. And we’re going to need some help from teams that are in front of us. And we’re going to have to play really good basketball ourselves,” Kupchak said in an interview with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith. “But if we do get into the playoffs, that does mean that we’re playing good basketball. And at that point, I’m very comfortable in a seven-game series with anybody, even if we get in at number eight. I love Kobe’s confidence and his vision for this team for the next three or four months.

“And that’s what you need from one of your star players and one of your leaders, you’ve got to have someone that believes and I think that’s great.”

Bryant, the NBA’s fourth-leading scorer at 26.6 points per game, cited a loss earlier this month to the Miami Heat as one of the sources of his confidence.

The Lakers dropped a 107-97 decision in Miami on Feb. 10 to conclude a seven-game road trip.

Despite the loss, Bryant told Sports Illustrated the Lakers showed positive signs in the contest.

“We will make the playoffs,” he said. “And we will compete. And part of the reason I have that confidence is the Miami game. We had control of the game. That was no fluke. We were playing very, very well. We were reading the defense, making the extra pass.

“OK, they have two great players [LeBron James and Dwyane Wade] who scored eight straight buckets and took control of the game. But we were right there. We can do it.”

At Thursday’s memorial service for Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who died on Monday, Bryant also encouraged his teammates to look at the players and coaches in the room and make the most of this season in the memory of Buss.

“It would be great if we could use that as motivation,” Nash said. “I’d like to think that regardless of Dr. Buss passing that we’d have the toughness to find it in ourselves to rally. It’s been a tough year obviously, and trying, but we’ve made some progress and we have to continue to make progress the rest of the way. It would be a beautiful thing to do it for Dr. Buss.”

Howard, who had visited Buss in the hospital after being traded to the Lakers, said he and most of his teammates already had that in mind before Bryant’s speech.

“I think a lot of guys already felt that way anyway,” Howard said. “So it wasn’t nothing new. We’ve all been talking about doing something special and changing what’s been going on here.”

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