First period
- Emmitt Finnie tries to chip the puck over Jakub Dobeš. He does so, but it bounces off the crossbar and goes behind the net.
- Cole Caufield fires one of his patented surprise shots from the goal line and John Gibson spins as he catches it but keeps himself out of the net.
- Juraj Slafkovský gets Montreal’s first great scoring chance off the ensuing faceoff thanks to a lobbed saucer pass across the top of the crease from Nick Suzuki.
- Brendan Gallagher tips a point shot that gives Gibson some trouble, and suddenly every line is getting chances for Montreal.
- It’s really just the third line struggling to get the puck in its own zone. It’s been a rough start for Zachary Bolduc, and it hasn’t helped that a couple of those shifts were with Alexandre Carrier also chasing the puck in his zone.
- Kaiden Guhle goes off for interference, James van Riemsdyk joins him for roughing on the same play, and this four-on-four stretch should benefit Montreal’s more dynamic offence.
- Guhle gets out of the box and Finnie comes over to give him a shove.
- I mean, if the Red Wings want to focus all their attention on Guhle for the rest of this game, as they just did by putting him in a headlock behind the net, I think we’ll take that.
- Dobeš turns what looked like a routine save into a juicy rebound, and only the strong defence of Hutson prevented the puck from being sent in an empty net.
- A difficult start for the third line ends in the offensive zone, with Ben Chiarot shoving Bolduc right on top of Gibson. The rest of the Red Wings swarm in to go after Bolduc, but Chiarot is the one going off for roughing after getting upset with the aftermath of his own hit. Not the brightest sequence from Detroit there.
- Just one shot on the power play. The top unit needs some new tactics to create shots.
- Ten scoring chances for Montreal in the period, but no goals to show for it. They really just need the third line to work a little more efficiently to keep constant pressure on the Red Wings from shift to shift and break them down.
Second period
- Detroit begins the second period with a high-energy shift and a good chance at the side of the net.
- A better response from Montreal’s second line.
- Carrier stands his ground at the blue line trying to hold in a bouncing puck, and the play quickly turns the other way when he misses it. Seconds later he get beaten around the outside and has to grab Andrew Copp’s jersey. He really needs to sit for a game, but it’s too late to make it this important one.
- I know the Red Wings’ power play hasn’t been good without Dylan Larkin, but Montreal had three scoring opportunities while short-handed.
- Montreal builds momentum out of the kill, with a line of Ivan Demidov, Alexandre Texier, and Brendan Gallagher on the ice.
- Trying to keep it going, Suzuki winds up in the neutral zone and gets past about seven Red Wings as Detroit tries to chance. Hutson ran into one of the players in red and gets assessed a two-minute minor.
- Detroit’s power play looks a lot more dangerous on this occasion as Montreal can’t touch the puck.
- It’s Guhle’s turn to put Finnie in a headlock as Dobeš takes a jab at the end of the penalty kill.
- The Red Wings carry the momentum out of this power play.
- The fourth line has an excellent shift in the offensive zone. At the end of it, Brendan Gallagher is hauled down so he can’t keep the cycle going and then Phillip Danault gets tripped. Neither is called a penalty.
- Montreal’s third line follows up with its first truly good shift of the night, and this time the ref has to call Moritz Seider for holding Jake Evans’s stick at the top of the crease.
- The Habs make Detroit pay for their illegal defending when Juraj Slafkovský whips in a rebound of Cole Caufield’s shot.
Caufield just throws one on net here, and Juraj Slafkovsky snipes the rebound. 1-0 #Habs
— Matt Drake (@drakemt.bsky.social) March 19, 2026 at 9:46 PM
[image or embed]
- That was Slafkovský’s 25th goal of the season.
- The Habs fans at Little Caesar’s Arena feel like singing.
- Moritz Seider puts his forearm into Suzuki’s back and sends him into Mason Appleton. Appleton is the one who limps off the ice after taking the brunt of the impact.
- Someone needs to teach Detroit’s defence the physics of momentum transfer.
- The momentum was all with Montreal at the end of the period. Detroit had it temporarily after the Hutson penalty, but it was another period filled with scoring chances for the Habs.
Third period
- Patrick Kane flips the puck toward the net. It goes wide … and in the net off the leg of J.T. Compher who had drifted to the side of the crease.
- Martin St-Louis is very upset on the bench after the goal, and it might be because all of Alex Newhook, Oliver Kapanen, and Demidov ended up behind the offensive goal line while up a goal to start the rush for Detroit.
- The game has returned to four-on-four with a couple of coincidental roughing calls.
- Carrier sneaks into the slot unseen by the Red Wings and Suzuki puts the puck on his stick, but the defenceman sends his shot high.
- The shots are 8-5 for Detroit in the third period. As usual, the goal against has gotten Montreal off its game.
- Evans gets the puck past his defender but can’t go after it because his stick is being held.
- The Red Wings have to commit two more infractions to keep the puck out of their net.
- Evans has to puck fall to him at the side of the net, and has the full cage to shoot at, but sends the puck into Gibson’s side. That should have been the 2-1 goal.
- And seconds later, Mike Matheson misplays the puck, letting it go directly to DeBrincat, who just has to walk in and deposit a backhand to put his team on top with 3:25 to play.
- Andrew Copp gets the empty-netter, and that’s a stinging loss for the Canadiens who are now in a three-way tie with Detroit and Boston Bruins.
- A day off, and then Montreal welcomes the New York Islanders for what will likely be another close game.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) You have to think it’s in his future
2) Sometimes you just allow a flukey one
1) I think Montreal already has the Presidents’ Trophy locked up
