SUMMARY
Patrik Laine scored his seventh power play goal in eight games and the Montreal Canadiens won the first game of a doubleheader against the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3, Friday night.
The Finn, who scored a hat trick Tuesday against the Buffalo Sabres, fired a powerful one-timer that broke Moritz Seider's stick before beating Cam Talbot in the third period.
Despite only playing eight games this season, Laine already finds himself fifth in the NHL in power play goals.
“That says a lot,” said Quebecer Alexandre Carrier, who played his first match in the Habs uniform. It's a marker and you can see it. (It’s) automatic as they say!”
Carrier didn't collect a point, but he was efficient from start to finish, spending 18:37 on the ice with Kaiden Guhle.
Emil Heineman, Jake Evans and Arber Xhekaj scored the first three goals for the Montreal team, which won a second game in a row.
For Xhekaj, it was a first goal this season.
Quebecer Alexandre Carrier played his first match in the Habs uniform. The right-handed defender wasn't the most spectacular, but he was effective from start to finish.
Samuel Montembeault, who made his eighth consecutive start, made 25 saves, including two important ones against Alex DeBrincat and JT Compher at the end of the game.
Patrick Kane, Joe Veleno and Tyler Motte responded for the Red Wings, who saw their short two-game winning streak snapped. Talbot stopped 29 shots.
The two teams will meet again Saturday evening at the Bell Center.
A lively start to the match
The Canadian players were ready to play when they took the ice at Little Caesars Arena and they demonstrated it by shooting the first five shots of the game, in the first three minutes of play, but Talbot resisted.
Four minutes later, Emil Heineman applied pressure in the opposing zone and this allowed Jake Evans to take possession of the puck and give it back to Heineman, who surprised Talbot with a quick wrist shot between the pads.
Midway through the period, Evans had a golden chance to double his team's lead following a pass from Mike Matheson in the slot, but Seider saved a certain goal.
The game moved into the CH zone in the following minutes and Patrick Kane made a throw as only he knows how to thwart Montembeault from a very tight angle, into the top corner.
Kirby Dach was punished for high sticking three minutes from the end of the first period and the Red Wings came close to taking advantage when the puck ended up behind Montembeault's neck following a strange deflection behind the net, but the Quebecer was alert and remained still to prevent the disc from falling into the net.
Less than 30 seconds later, Evans showed a good forecheck and the speedy forward beat Talbot with a feint near the net. It was his sixth goal of the campaign and his second shorthanded, in his 300th NHL game.
With only 33 seconds left on the clock, Montrealer Veleno deflected a shot from former Habs defender Jeff Petry to bring the two teams back to square one.
If the first period gave rise to lively play, the same cannot be said of the second.
No goals were scored and the Canadian's best chances came on his only numerical advantage, at the end of the period.
Laine and Alex Newhook each fired one-timers, but Talbot was alert on every occasion.
The third period got off to a bad start for Martin St-Louis' men and particularly for Lane Hutson.
The young defender made a mistake handing the puck to Michael Rasmussen in the slot and the latter passed it to Tyler Motte who scored an easy goal.
“It's a turnaround and these are plays that we want to try to limit, but Lane played a good game,” replied St-Louis, when asked about the difficulties of his young defender.
Seven minutes later, Joel Armia handed the puck to Xhekaj at the blue line and the sturdy defenseman fired a wrist shot that beat Talbot, who seemed to blame himself.
In the middle of the third period, Hutson redeemed himself by first giving the Canadian a numerical advantage thanks to his work near the opposing net.
Then in the next moments, he handed the puck to Laine, who scored the decisive goal.
