MONTREAL – Giving foes the chance of the proverbial snowball in Devildom, New Jersey’s ice-cold power play is suddenly boiling.

Finally punishing the penalized, the Devils’ power play has made a remarkable U-turn. After managing a league-worst three power play goals in their first 11 games, the Devils entered last night’s rematch with the Canadiens here having scored five PPGs in three games.

“You never know,” Pat Burns said after his Devils struck three times on the power play in Friday’s 5-1 rout of the Canadiens at the Meadowlands. “These things get hot and they get cold. That’s the whole thing of a hockey season.”

Such extremes, however, are bizarre.

“We kept it simple and that’s how we got the power-play goal,” Burns said.

The Devils went 3-for-6 Friday after scoring twice in last Saturday’s loss to Edmonton and being blanked in Tuesday’s OT victory over Anaheim. Before that, the Devils had gone a woeful 3-for-51, allowing a shorthander that left them only plus-2 in more than a full game’s worth of advantage.

Between the power-play outburst and the pair scored by Jamie Langenbrunner for the second straight game, Friday’s loss left Montreal’s coach sputtering that the hallowed Canadiens’ sweater had been disgraced.

“It was embarrassing. When we wear the Montreal Canadiens’ jersey, we should wear it with pride. And we’re not wearing it with pride right now,” Habs coach Michel Therrien said.

It was a gauntlet thrown down by the Habs’ skipper to rouse his troops for last night’s rematch.

“They’re definitely not going to let that happen again,” Burns said.

Friday was a Devils evening from the first faceoff, as they matched their greatest margin of victory this season (5-1 win over Tampa Bay).

“I don’t know what we were thinking. The first period was a joke,” said ex-Devil Randy McKay, his return spoiled as New Jersey outshot the Habs 44-21, their biggest barrage of the year. “Obviously, I didn’t have much fun tonight.”

Instead, it was his direct right wing replacement, Langenbrunner, who led the scoring with two goals for the second straight game. Langenbrunner was acquired from Dallas with Joe Nieuwendyk for Jason Arnott, McKay and a first-rounder last March.

“I’ve gotten in some streaks before, but this one feels different because I don’t feel that it’s going to come and go,” said Langenbrunner, who raised his total to seven this season, five in his last four games.

In posting their first winning streak (two games) of November, the Devils handed Montreal goalie Jeff Hackett his first loss (4-1-2) of the season.

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Canadiens were to honor Larry Robinson last night in pregame ceremonies, for his part with the 1977-78 Habs team that lost only eight games all season. … Martin Brodeur was expected to stretch his season-long start streak to 15 games last night. His longest season-opening streak was last year’s 19. … Devils play host to Buffalo on Tuesday and Rangers on Thursday.