By Dave Hogg
NHL.com Independent Correspondent
DETROIT — Alex DeBrincat scored the go-ahead goal late in the third and had two assists for the Detroit Red Wings in a 3-1 victory against the Montreal Canadiens at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday.
DeBrincat put Detroit up 2-1 at 16:35 after Montreal defenseman Mike Matheson lost the puck when he fell in the right face-off circle. DeBrincat collected the puck and cut to the slot before lifting a backhand over Jakub Dobes‘ blocker.
“We made a good play to get it out of our zone, and I was just trying to pressure the (defenseman),” DeBrincat said. “He stumbled and I got a breakaway. I’ll take it.”
MTL@DET: DeBrincat buries a backhand for a 2-1 lead in 3rd
It was the second straight three-point game for DeBrincat, who had three assists in a 5-2 win against the Calgary Flames on Monday.
J.T. Compher and Andrew Copp also scored for the Red Wings (38-23-8), who have won two straight after losing five of six (1-3-2). John Gibson made 32 saves.
Detroit is tied in points with third-place Montreal in the Atlantic Division and is also tied with the Boston Bruins for the two wild cards into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
“This was definitely a playoff atmosphere,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “On the ice, there were a lot of competitive battles and emotion, but you could feel it off the ice as well, there was so much energy in the building.”
Juraj Slafkovsky scored for the Canadiens (37-21-10), who have lost three of four. Dobes made 25 saves.
“I thought we played a decent game,” Slafkovsky said. “We had many opportunities to score more goals than we did, we needed to do it. It was a nice hockey game to play in, but it just stinks we’re not the ones smiling right now.”
Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said, “We were right there despite a lot of bad luck. We played a mature game and we were in control for a long time.”
Slafkovsky put the Canadiens up 1-0 with a power-play goal at 17:45 of the second period. Cole Caufield threw the puck on net from the goal line, and Slafkovsky pounced on the rebound to beat Gibson over the left shoulder with a snap shot that went bar down.
Compher tied it 1-1 at 2:14 of the third period. Patrick Kane‘s wrist shot from the right point deflected off Dobes’ blocker and then bounced in off Compher as he battled in the crease.
“I didn’t know where to go with the puck,” Dobes said. “It was a good move by him and unlucky for us.”
DeBrincat, Compher and Kane have become Detroit’s only true scoring line since Dylan Larkin’s lower-body injury on March 6.
“(Compher) has been great since (Larkin) and (Copp) went out,” DeBrincat said. “He was filling in on Larkin’s line and now he’s playing with us and he’s been really good. Now we’ve got (Copp) back as well.”
Copp, who returned after missing three games with a lower-body injury, scored an empty-net goal at 19:43 to make it a 3-1 final. He also had two shots on goal in 18:19 of ice time.
NOTES: DeBrincat has nine points (one goal, eight assists) in a five-game point streak. … Red Wings forward Mason Appleton left the game with 42 seconds left in the second period after getting hit into the boards by Montreal forward Nick Suzuki and falling awkwardly to the ice. There was no update postgame. … Suzuki has 19 points (six goals, 13 assists) in 22 career games against Detroit.
