Josh Anderson scored the game-winning goal with 9:12 remaining to lead the host Montreal Canadiens to a 4-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday.
Montreal (39-30-9, 87 points) took a big step toward clinching the second and final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, moving eight points ahead of Detroit (36-34-7, 79 points) and the New York Rangers for that last playoff berth.
Montreal has four games left in the regular season, while the Red Wings and Rangers each have five. The Canadiens have now won six straight games to follow a five-game slide.
With the game tied at 1-1 in the third period, Anderson took a pass from Christian Dvorak and tapped the puck into an open goal.
Anderson got wide open after Detroit defenseman Albert Johansson lost his helmet behind the Detroit goal in a collision with Anderson, and tried to pick it up instead of risking getting a penalty.
As Johansson did that, Anderson got open in front of the Detroit goal and scored.
The Red Wings pulled goalie Cam Talbot with 2:44 left, but couldn’t tie the game before Brendan Gallagher scored an empty-net goal with 1:06 remaining to give the Canadiens a 3-1 lead.
Nick Suzuki added an empty-net goal with 53 seconds left to round out the scoring. Sam Montembeault made 35 saves in goal for Montreal.
Detroit opened the scoring with 10:06 remaining in the first period when Patrick Kane skated in on a 3-on-1 and fed a pass toward the Montreal crease to Dylan Larkin, who tapped the puck into an open net.
The Red Wings dominated the opening period, outshooting the Canadiens 23-4, but could only net one goal.
The score remained that way until there was 3:31 left in the second period, when Montreal tied the game at 1-1 after Cole Caufield poked a loose puck in front of the Detroit goal underneath the pads of Talbot.
–Field Level Media
