With their backs against the wall yet again, the Detroit Red Wings overcame a three-goal deficit, and Lucas Raymond once again played hero with the game-tying and overtime-winning goals to deliver the two points Detroit needed to stay alive with a 5-4 overtime win over the Montreal Canadiens on Monday at Little Caesars Arena.
It was a frustrating game through the first 40 minutes, a mix of Detroit not being able to keep the puck out of the net despite not allowing much, and failing to get many prime scoring chances as the Canadiens’ game plan appeared to be “block everything” — finishing with 38 blocked shots. But the desperation kicked in late and led to some of the most chaotic hockey that LCA has ever seen.
The effort saved Detroit from elimination, as they got zero out-of-town help, with the Capitals, Penguins and Islanders all winning. The short of it is: the Red Wings still need help, needing Washington to lose to Philadelphia tomorrow night (regulation or overtime) while also beating Montreal on the road. But Detroit did its part, and its most important players came up big when the team needed them most.
Game Summary
Event Summary
A few pre-game news items were that Andrew Copp returned with a full cage for his broken cheekbone, in place of Zach Aston-Reese. Recently signed college star Lane Hutson made his NHL debut for Montreal.
1st period
The Hollywood script says the Red Wings came out guns blazing, motivated by a raucous home crowd and the emotional lift of Dylan Larkin’s overtime goal on Saturday. But this is the 2023-24 Detroit Red Wings so they… spotted the lowly Canadiens a two-goal lead.
First, it was the aforementioned Hutson throwing the puck on net that Brendan Gallagher capitalized on, as Detroit’s defenders could not clear away a bouncing puck. Less than two minutes later, Justin Barron fired a rolling puck over Alex Lyon on a 3-on-2 break. Six minutes down, three shots against, two goals against.
But, as they have so often this season, the Red Wings rallied back. Shortly after falling by a pair, J.T. Compher cut the lead in half after first setting up Alex DeBrincat for a glorious tap-in that hit the post but ended up right back to Compher, who backhanded the rebound over a flailing Sam Montembault.
Detroit’s a little lucky to get out of the period down 2-1 given the start, but they did out-attempt Montreal 28-12, so they’re giving themselves a chance.
2nd period
However, Montreal put Detroit back on the ropes just past the five-minute mark of the second period, when Rafael Harvey-Pinard got behind the Red Wings’ defense and converted on a perfect feed from Jake Evans to restore Montreal’s two-goal cushion.
The Canadiens extended their lead to three late in the second period, moments after Raymond was crunched from behind by Josh Anderson. It should have been a penalty, but we haven’t seen a hit from behind get called against the Red Wings in years, so why start now? But the goal was caused by a highly unfortunate bounce on a clearing attempt by Simon Edvinsson, which ricocheted off Evans’ skate and right on the stick of Gallagher, all alone in front. A disastrous sequence and a potential emotional breaking point for Detroit.
But for the second time on the night, Compher responded quickly to restore a sliver of hope. Patrick Kane dished the puck off to David Perron on the boards and took both defenders with him crashing to the net, leaving Perron a lane to just barely slide a backhand pass through the slot and right to Compher, who buried a shot past Montembault.
3rd period
A post by Kane, a bank attempt by Larkin that just missed, and the clock was quickly becoming an enemy with Detroit mustering little else in terms of grade-A scoring chances. But they pulled back within one off what looked like a set faceoff play. Larkin won it back to Olli Maatta, who passed to Shayne Gostisbehere along the boards. Meanwhile, DeBrincat was floating from the right wing all the way to the left, and he wasted no time in launching Gostisbehere’s cross-ice feed past Montembault, who never saw it in traffic.
Detroit lifted the goalie with about two-and-a-half minutes to play, and the ensuing minute, hour, month, whatever — completely lost track of all time in that moment — was Detroit’s most chaotic moment of the season. The Red Wings moved the puck around with incredible urgency, created a madhouse goal-mouth scramble where multiple players ended up inside the net, and ended with Gostisbehere (after hitting a post himself) jumping about nine feet in the air to save a clearing attempt from leaving the zone. Off that sequence, Perron moved it to Raymond down low, and the Habs, completely gassed, made no effort to get in front of him, and Raymond tied the game at four with his 30th of the season.
Overtime
The energy didn’t fizzle an ounce in the extra frame, with both DeBrincat and Gostisbehere ringing shots off the crossbar in the opening minutes. Credit to Derek Lalonde, who just kept rolling out the same two forward groups, until Larkin and Raymond connected on a rush up the ice. Larkin feathered a perfect pass ahead to Raymond, who had just enough of a step on the backchecking Hutson to catch up to the puck and send Hockeytown into a frenzy.
Takeaways
1. On the gameplan. I’m not going to argue with anyone who isn’t happy with how Detroit played early in that game. Detroit has spotted too many bad teams too many early leads all year, so it’s a bummer to see that happen in such a high-stakes game. But, for the most part, it felt like Detroit was in control of this one and kept their composure during a frustrating stretch. Maybe Montreal sat back too much after holding at least a two-goal lead for most of the game. They were credited with 90 shot attempts tonight (shots, plus blocked shots and missed nets) and allowed 39 attempts. When they had to crank up the urgency, you saw no panic at all, as this team has been in this situation — and similarly found success in it — all season long. That’s not necessarily a long-term recipe for success, but it was tonight.
2. Unsung heroes. I’m not sure what else I can say about Lucas Raymond at this point that I didn’t cover after his hat trick efforts of last week. So a big credit goes to Compher’s well-timed two goals — striking 1:56 after Montreal made it 2-0 and just 33 seconds after they made it 4-1 — because the dramatics don’t happen without him. It’s good to see him heating back up after a colder stretch last month. And I sense a lot of fans have justifiably cooled on the Gostisbehere train, but he quite literally reached into the sky and rescued Detroit’s playoff chances as they were soaring over his head on the tying goal, and he drew an assist on each of the Red Wings’ final three goals.
3. Hear our prayers, hockey gods. It’ll sting if Detroit doesn’t make the playoffs, knowing the cushion they had, but if they go out by winning and playing the kind of hockey we’ve seen for most of the last two weeks — and healthy portions throughout the rest of the season — it will slightly ease the blow of another long summer. But man oh man, if they do get it done, nothing is more fitting for this Eastern Conference Wild Card race than a game between a Washington Capitals team that is 3-6-1 and a Philadelphia Flyers squad that is 2-8-0 in each’s last 10 to decide Detroit’s fate.
Your moment of zen
I used the Ken Kal call, why not listen to the Ken Daniels call, too?
It all comes down to tomorrow night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec. The Red Wings’ rematch against the Canadiens starts at 7 p.m. LGRW.
