Montembeault stops 35, Canadiens top Red Wings for 6th win in row

MONTREAL -- Sam Montembeault made 35 saves, and the Montreal Canadiens won their sixth straight to move a step closer to their first berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2021 with a 4-1 victory against the Detroit Red Wings at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Montembeault recorded his 30th win of the season, the first time in his NHL career he's reached the mark.

Josh Anderson broke a tie midway through the third period and had an assist, and Nick Suzuki and Brendan Gallagher also each had a goal and an assist for Montreal (39-30-9), which holds the second wild card from the Eastern Conference with 87 points, eight more than four other teams.

“These are games you want to be a part of,” Anderson said. “Early on it was tough to get on the forecheck, trying to hunt on their ‘D’. And they did a great job of containing us, they had good sticks. But we found a way in the third period to find our forecheck and just be simple and one line after another, just continue to press, and so we found a way.”

The Canadiens also pulled to within three points of the Ottawa Senators, who lost 5-2 at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday, for the first wild card in the East. Montreal and Ottawa each has four games remaining.

“‘Monty’ kept us in it in the first, kept it tight,” Montreal defenseman Kaiden Guhle said of Montembeault. “It’s playoff hockey. You look for goalies to steal games for you in the playoffs and that’s what he did tonight.”

Dylan Larkin scored, and Cam Talbot made 17 saves for the Red Wings (36-34-7), who were 3-0-1 in their past four games and outshot the Canadiens 36-21, including 23-4 in the first.

Detroit is one of the four teams trailing Montreal by eight points.

“We did a lot of good things except score the second goal,” Larkin said.

Larkin put Detroit up 1-0 at 9:54 of the first period when he scored on a 3-on-1 break. He drove the slot to the left post and put away Patrick Kane’s pass from the right side with Alex DeBrincat also in on the odd-man rush against Montreal defenseman Alexandre Carrier.

“Great start, great first period,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “You’d like to be up more than 1-0 going in, there’s certainly concern about that. It gives the other team a chance to regroup and get themselves in the game.”

Cole Caufield tied it 1-1 at 16:29 of the second period when he scored on Montreal’s 10th shot. The Canadiens were outshot 30-9 before Caufield outbattled Detroit defenseman Justin Holl in front of the net to backhand a loose puck past Talbot.

“A lot of shots in the first, so it helped me really get into that game,” Montembeault said. “After that we started building our game, we started playing better and better, and it was a great third period for us. We got that goal and never looked back.”

Anderson gave Montreal a 2-1 lead at 10:48 of the third after a collision with Albert Johansson. The Red Wings defenseman lost his helmet, and Anderson was left unmarked on the right side of the slot to finish on Christian Dvorak’s backdoor pass from the left side.

“You couldn’t draw that up any worse for us than that because (Johansson) would have been in perfect position to kill that play,” McLellan said. “But he was picking his helmet up or coming to the bench, and it’s in.”

Gallagher made it 3-1 with an empty-net goal at 18:54, and Suzuki also scored into an empty net with 53 seconds remaining for the 4-1 final.

NOTES: Montembeault is the 10th goalie in Canadiens history to have a 30-win season, and the first since Carey Price won 35 games in 2018-19. … Caufield has 37 goals, the most by a Canadiens player since Max Pacioretty scored 37 in 2014-15 after scoring 39 in 2013-14. … Suzuki has 86 points (28 goals, 58 assists), the most by a Montreal player since Pierre Turgeon (96 points) and Vincent Damphousse (94) in 1995-96.