Bernier makes 42 saves, Red Wings defeat Canadiens for second straight

MONTREAL-- Jonathan Bernier made 42 saves, and the Detroit Red Wings won a second straight game, 2-1 against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Tyler Bertuzzi and Mike Green scored for Detroit (9-22-3), which was 0-10-2 in its previous 12.
"Obviously we went through an extremely difficult stretch there, but I find that the last four or five games we played really well," Bernier said. "We just had some bad bounces that ended up in the net. But the last two games, we've had luck, and sometimes that's what it takes to get things going."
WATCH: [All Red Wings vs. Canadiens highlights]
Tomas Tatar scored on the Canadiens' 41st shot to make it 2-1 with 47 seconds remaining. Carey Price made 18 saves for Montreal (15-12-6), which had won three in a row.
"He kept us a long time in the game," Tatar said of Price. "And we just have to find a way to score a goal. And I think a power-play (goal) would have helped us a lot, maybe get one on the board and tie the game in the middle, so unfortunately we didn't get it."
Bernier made a sprawling save on Nick Suzuki to deny Montreal a goal that would have tied it 1-1 while the Detroit was on a power play at 2:19 of the third.
"Obviously he got the puck for the best player of the game," Bertuzzi said. "He kept us in it the whole time and he let us get a good power-play goal at the end, and he stood on his head. He was huge for us."

Montreal was 4-1-0 in its previous five games after an 0-5-3 stretch.
"It goes back to the same thing, if you want to score goals, go to the net, find ways to outwork the goalie," Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher said. "We didn't do that tonight and we probably got the result we deserved."
Bertuzzi gave Detroit a 1-0 lead at 3:21 of the first period. Dylan Larkin outbattled Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber for the puck behind the net and passed to Bertuzzi, who scored on a one-timer from the slot.

Green's power-play goal from the point made it 2-0 at 7:42 of the third.
"I thought he did a really good job to switch a spot and open up that lane," Bernier said.

They said it

"We got that winning feeling back and it's a good one, so we came in tonight wanting to get another one. We've just got to have the same mindset every night and work hard, play simple and keep trying to get wins." -- Red Wings forward Tyler Bertuzzi
"There were some guys who went to the front of the net, but we had a lot of guys that didn't want to get on the inside there. I felt we played a little bit soft tonight at times, and we weren't finishing, we weren't in the battle, and we just kind of looked to play an easier game than we should have. And because of that, we got burnt. We've been good on the road, we haven't been good enough at home. We don't play as hard at home. So far, we haven't played as hard as we have on the road, so that needs to change." -- Canadiens coach Claude Julien

Need to know

It was Bernier's second straight win at Montreal this season. He was 0-8-2 in 11 previous games at Bell Centre prior to making 33 saves in a 4-2 win against the Canadiens on Oct. 10. ... Red Wings forwards Anthony Mantha and Andreas Athanasiou each returned from injury. Mantha played 12:25 after missing eight games with a lower-body injury. Athanasiou, who had an assist playing 16:00, missed two games with an undisclosed injury. ... Montreal forward Phillip Danault and Gallagher each had a five-game point streak end.

What's next

Red Wings: Host the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-D, FS-W, NHL.TV)
Canadiens: At the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday (10 p.m. ET; SNP, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV)