Montreal came into the game struggling as of late but have had tons of success against the Wings having won 10 of their last 13 games together. Carey Price entered the game with a career 10-3-1 record against the Red Wings with a 2.05 GAA and .930 save percentage. The Wings did not pressure Price too much in this one but they absolutely stymied the Canadiens offense and were able to squeak out just enough offense to walk away from this one with a 1-0 win.
First Period
The Wings came out with a lot of the same speed and pressure that the found during the Penguins game. The first shift into the game the skill that Nick Jensen brings to the blue line really shows as he weaves his way into the offensive zone with the puck. I am not sure how Ken Holland is going to figure out the blue line once Nick Kronwall and Brendan Smith come back from injury. The Wings draw an early power play as Nathan Beaulieu trips up Andreas Athanasiou in the corner. Zone entry is apparently still a big problem for the Red Wings on the power play as they spent more time chasing down the puck and lugging it back up the ice than actually in the zone. They did get a couple decent chances with the man advantage but nothing real dangerous. Despite the poor power play the Wings played with a lot of confidence winning puck battles, pushing the play at the Canadiens and not really allowing Montreal any chances to set up in the Wings zone. The only real pressure the Canadiens had all period came when a Shea Weber broke Luke Glendening’s stick in half with a shot and Montreal kept the puck at the point to take full advantage of it. Anthony Mantha would take a slashing penalty just past the half way mark of the period but Detroit did an excellent job killing it off without any danger.
The highlight of the period easily was Athanasiou continuing his torrid pace as he stole the puck at the Canadiens blue line and came in all alone on Carey Price. He got Price down with a forehand backhand fake but he was not able to get the puck up and over Price’s glove.
The rest of the period was somewhat sloppy as both teams found it tough getting anything going through the neutral zone and the period ended 0-0.
Second Period
Montreal came out with a lot of energy to start the period and put a lot of pressure on the Red Wings in their own zone. Fortunately Jacob De La Rose got called for holding Glendening three minutes into the period and that seemed to curtail the pressure the Canadiens were building. On the ensuing power play Henrik Zetterberg fired a slap shot high and wide off a bit of a scramble that Tomas Vanek got a stick on behind Price but somehow the puck dropped down and ran along the goal line and out the other side of Price. The rest of the power play was uneventful. Shortly after the penalty expired, Coreau was called on to make his best save of the game so far as Max Pacioretty left a nice drop pass to a trailing Alex Galchenyuk who fired it high blocker side but caught Coreau in the shoulder. Shortly after that Mantha made a real nice play at the blue line to get around the defense but he put his shot high and crashed into boards. The rest of the period was somewhat bland as both teams continued to make it very difficult on the other to find any kind of space or rhythm in the offensive zone. It seemed destined this game would go into the third period tied 0-0 until late in the period with Frans Nielsen did an excellent job winning the faceoff in the Montreal zone cleanly then retrieving a loose puck and getting it back to Danny DeKesyer who let a shot go from the point that would deflect off Vanek and into the net for a 1-0 Red Wings lead. Montreal threw everything they had at the Wings for the last minute and a half and pushed hard for the late equalizer but the Wings were up to the task and took the 1-0 lead into the second intermission.
Third Period
Blashill mixed up the defensive pairings to start the third. Alexey Marchenko moved to pair with DeKeyser, Mike Green played with Jonathan Ericsson and Xavier Ouellet paired up with the Jensen. Right away the comfort of Jensen and Ouellet have with each other from their time in Grand Rapids was apparent as Jensen made a very heady move to adjust his positioning to support Ouellet on an attempted Canadiens breakout. Once again good puck movement in the offensive zone forced Montreal into taking a penalty, this time it was Pacioretty going off on a admittedly weak hooking call against Mantha. The power play was a lot of the same from the veteran unit. The second PP unit of Tatar-Larkin-Mantha-Abdelkader-DeKeyser continued to impress though as they moved the puck well and were not afraid to take shots (now if only they can start hitting the net with those shots). After the power play failed to capitalize the Canadiens again put pressure on the Red Wings and again the Wings were able to weather/absorb the pressure without giving up anything really dangerous. Alex Galchenyuk would give the Wings one more chance on the man advantage as he would get called for high sticking Zetterberg, although it looked more like he caught him more with his elbow than his stick. The power play was everything you would expect from the Red Wings power play this season. The last four minutes or so Montreal did everything they could to try and get something going but the Wings, playing one of the best defensive games I have seen them play this season, simply would not allow Montreal to get anything going and hold on for the 1-0 win.
Final Thoughts
Mickey Redmond said more than once during the broadcast that this is a different looking team than the one we have seen over the first part of the season and I have to agree. They are moving with more pace to their game and are transitioning a lot faster from defense to offense and vice versa. The play is still not always clean and the passes are still not always crisp but you can start to see some things starting to click with this team and players are starting to settle into their roles. A team with more offensive firepower than Montreal likely would have taken better advantage of the mistakes the Wings still made in their own zone but as a fan you have to be encouraged with the effort the team has put in the last two games. I know most do not want to look at or hear anything that has the words playoffs associated with it but with the Wings win today and a Boston loss earlier the Wings are now seven points back of the Bruins for second in the division with three games in hand and a big game against the Bruins on Wednesday night in Detroit. It was said they needed to win five of six during this home stand and with wins in the first two the Wings are off to a good start there.
