The Montreal Canadiens did not play their best game on Sunday, but thanks to some lucky bounces and a lethargic performance by the Red Wings, they were still able to post a sixth straight win, beating Detroit 4-1.
“We’ve got a little roll going right now and we need to keep it going,” said Dustin Tokarski, who made 28 saves in his fifth game of the year. “Everyone contributed tonight. We were blocking shots and playing the right way.”
Playing for the second time in as many nights, Montreal scored three times off odd deflections and limited Detroit to 10 shots in the first two periods, despite four power plays.
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“I think we were always trying to find one more pass and it didn’t work,” Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “Some of the time, you just have to throw the puck at the net. They did that and look at what happened for them.”
Two nights after dominating the Blackhawks in a 4-1 win, the Red Wings took too long to get untracked against another of their Original Six rivals.
“You’ve got to come out with more jump and more energy than we had tonight,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said.
Photo: USA Today
“I thought we did a great job of starting the game the other night against Chicago, but we didn’t do that at all tonight,” he said.
Also on Sunday, the Wild beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-3 after Marco Scandella scored at 1 minute, 1 second of overtime after missing two games with an illness.
Minnesota were reeling after blowing a 3-0 lead in the third period and getting outplayed by the scrappy Jets, but Scandella’s third goal of the season — a low wrist-shot from just inside the blue line that beat Michael Hutchinson — prevented the Wild from losing their second game this year after losing a three-goal lead.
In Raleigh, North Carolina, Tomas Hertl scored his fourth goal of the season and rookie goalkeeper Troy Grosenick stopped 45 shots on his NHL debut to lead the San Jose Sharks to a 2-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.
Elsewhere, the Blackhawks and the Panthers each had 6-2 wins, while the Arizona Coyotes edged the Edmonton Oilers 2-1.
Patrick Kane and Kris Versteeg each had a goal and two assists as the Chicago Blackhawks rallied with four goals in the third period to defeat the Dallas Stars.
Nick Bjugstad had two goals and two assists, while Brad Boyes scored twice during the Florida Panthers’ four-goal second period in the 6-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks.
Vincent Trocheck and Jonathan Huberdeau also scored as Florida opened a four-game road trip with a stunning blowout of the West-leading Ducks.
Jussi Jokinen and Brian Campbell had two assists apiece in the highest-scoring performance of the season by the Florida Panthers, who had scored an NHL-low 27 goals going into Sunday’s game.
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