Lucas Raymond scored his second goal of the night with 24.4 seconds remaining in overtime to give Detroit a 5-4 home win over the Montreal Canadiens on Monday, keeping alive the Red Wings’ playoff hopes.
Detroit (40-32-9, 89 points) rallied from a 4-1 deficit to remain in contention for the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot. Four teams are within two points of that position, each team having one game left on the schedule.
The Red Wings are tied on points with the Washington Capitals, with the Pittsburgh Penguins one point behind and the Philadelphia Flyers two points back. If Detroit wins at Montreal on Tuesday and Washington loses at Philadelphia, the Red Wings would seal a postseason berth.
Trailing 4-2 in the third period, Detroit cut Montreal’s lead in half with 9:22 remaining when Alex DeBrincat one-timed a shot from the right faceoff circle over the glove of Montreal goalie Sam Montembeault.
The Red Wings pulled goalie Alex Lyon (17 saves) with 2:20 remaining and, after extensive pressure in the Montreal zone, tied the game at 4-4 with 1:17 left when Raymond got free in front of Montembeault (30 saves) and beat him glove side.
In overtime, Raymond took a pass from Dylan Larkin on a rush and beat Montembeault with a shot from the right faceoff circle.
J.T. Compher also scored twice for Detroit, and DeBrincat had a goal and an assist. The Red Wings got three assists from Shayne Gostisbehere and two from David Perron.
Brendan Gallagher scored two goals in defeat for Montreal (30-36-15, 75 points) in the opener of a home-and-home set between the teams to close the regular season. The Canadiens also received goals from Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Justin Barron, and Jake Evans had three assists.
The Canadiens opened the scoring 4:25 in the game on a goal by Gallagher, then made it 2-0 just 1:50 later on a goal by Barron.
Compher scored with 11:49 remaining the first to cut Montreal’s lead to 2-1 — where the score stood at the end of one period. But Montreal took a 3-1 lead with 14:45 left in the second on a goal by Harvey-Pinard, who took a pass from Evans in the slot and beat Lyon to the stick side.
Gallagher gave Montreal a 4-1 lead with 4:34 remaining in the second when he jumped on a loose puck that came out in front of the goal following a Detroit turnover behind the net. He buried the chance past Lyon.
Detroit answered 33 seconds later when Compher snuck behind the Montreal defense, took a cross-ice pass from Perron and finished the chance in front of Montembeault to make it 4-2.
–Field Level Media
