A little more than 24 hours after making his mea culpa in front of the cameras, Mike Matheson sounded the charge for the Canadian, who ended a series of four defeats.
Cole Caufield scored the winning goal on a power play with 44 seconds left in overtime and the Montreal hockey club defeated the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 on Thursday at Little Caesars Arena.
Caufield beat James Reimer with a shot into the upper part of the net, on the shield side.
For his part, Matheson collected a goal and two assists, participating in all of his team’s goals. The 29-year-old defenseman had compiled minus-3 differentials in his two previous outings. This time, he ended the evening at plus-1.
On the offensive side, coach Martin St-Louis had shuffled the cards a little, placing Alex Newhook and Josh Anderson on Nick Suzuki’s wings. Caufield found himself to the left of Christian Dvorak and Juraj Slafkovsky.
Suzuki also scored for the Canadian (6-5-2), in addition to collecting an assist. In his second start of the season, Cayden Primeau stopped 27 shots.
Christian Fischer and JT Compher scored for the Red Wings (7-5-2). Reimer made 23 saves.
The Canadian will return to the Bell Center this weekend. It will host the Boston Bruins on Saturday, then the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday.
A good battle
The visitors opened the scoring 7:02 into the game. Newhook took advantage of the space created by Moritz Seider’s fall after contact with Suzuki to advance. Newhook then joined Matheson in the slot and the Montreal defender moved the strings with a lively shot from the side of the shield.
The Canadian had not had the lead in each of his previous six matches.
Primeau preserved this lead for more than one period thanks to some good saves. He was notably alert against Jeff Petry during a two-on-one attack, then when Dylan Larkin wanted to surprise him from behind the net.
Suzuki came close to widening the gap in the second period, when the Canadian was playing outnumbered. He escaped, but his shot grazed Reimer’s shoulder before hitting the post.
Reimer signaled himself again when Anderson appeared alone before him. He made the save with his shield.
Sean Monahan beat Reimer with 7:58 left in the second period, during a power play. But Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde won his case during a video challenge. The restarts showed that there had been offside when entering the zone.
The Red Wings took advantage of this second chance by tying the game 1-1 with 3:16 left in the second period. Michael Rasmussen shot backhanded. The puck deflected against the glove of Primeau and Fischer before ending its journey behind the goal line.
The referees reviewed the goal, but ultimately awarded it since Fischer had not intentionally deflected the puck with his glove.
The two teams exchanged goals early in the third period. Suzuki surprised Reimer between the pads during a power play, 26 seconds into the game. Then Compher found the opening over Primeau’s right shoulder at 6:06.
Primeau and Reimer made good saves in overtime, but the Red Wings goaltender was punished for stupidly holding Caufield’s stick after a collision between the two players.
Suzuki hit the post first, then Caufield played the hero a few seconds later.