DETROIT — A determined comeback effort by the Montreal Canadiens proved to be too little, too late as they dropped a 4-2 decision Friday night to the Detroit Red Wings.
The Canadiens outshot the Red Wings 19-3 in the final period and forward Benoit Pouliot made things interesting when he scored his seventh goal of the season with less than eight minutes left in the frame to make the score 3-2. He picked up a puck in the neutral zone, eluded a defender as he crossed the blue-line and beat Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard with a 35-foot slapshot.
Howard, who made 36 saves, shut the door the rest of the way and Patrick Eaves scored an empty-net goal with 46 seconds left to play.
“If we played like we did in the third period the whole three periods, we could have come out with the win,” Pouliot said.
“The penalties we took in the first and second periods did not help at all. It looked at the end like the ref put his whistle away and didn’t call anything,” said Pouliot. “It’s tough. You can blame it on anything but, in the end, we lost.”
The game ended the Canadiens’ win streak at three games, while the Red Wings ended a three-game losing streak,
The Red Wings took control of the game in the second period when they scored twice to take a 3-1 lead.
Niklas Kronwall snapped a 1-1 tie when he scored on a 40-foot shot that caromed off the goalpost on Montreal goalie Carey Price’s glove side.
The Canadiens had their only power play when Jonathan Ericsson was sent off for hooking at 13:07 and Andrei Kostitsyn shot wide of an open net after Howard stopped Alexandre Picard’s drive from the blue-line. Ericsson returned to the ice and took a pass from Henrik Zetterberg, who took advantage of a lazy play by Pouliot. Ericsson fed the puck ahead to Pavel Datsyuk, who gave Detroit a 3-1 lead at 15:31. Datsyuk went to his backhand and lifted the puck into the top corner on Price glove side.
Nicklas Lidstrom scored during a 5-on-3 power play with 1.2 seconds showing on the clock in the first period to pull the Red Wings even at 1-1. Tomas Holmstrom poked the puck loose as Josh Gorges tried to freeze it behind the Montreal net. He pushed the puck to Pavel Datsyuk, who found Lidstrom alone in front.
“It was an unfortunate bounce but those things happen,” said Canadiens centre Plekanec. “It might have been different if we had held on.”
Price made saves on Lidstrom and Zetterberg earlier in the two-man advantage and was the difference as the Red Wings outshot the Canadiens, 18-7.
Travis Moen gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead when he scored at 11:25 of the opening period. Jeff Halpern, who was replacing the gimpy Scott Gomez on the Canadiens’ No. 2 line, won a faceoff in the Detroit zone and directed the puck to Michael Cammalleri. His shot was wide of the net but Moen controlled the puck behind the goal-line and scored when his centring attempt caromed off goaltender Jimmy Howard’s skate.
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