Canadiens fall to Red Wings in overtime

MONTREAL -- Anthony Mantha scored with 49.6 seconds remaining in overtime to give the Detroit Red Wings a 2-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Tuesday.
Arturri Lehkonen scored with 2:29 remaining in the third period for the Canadiens (41-23-9), who lead the Ottawa Senators by three points for first place in the Atlantic Division. The Senators defeated the Boston Bruins 3-2 on Tuesday.

Montreal is 9-2-1 in its past 12 games.
WATCH: All Canadiens vs. Red Wings highlgihts
"It is good to get the point, I was really happy to see [Lehkonen] come through," Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty said.
Mantha scored on a wrist shot past Al Montoya to give Detroit (29-32-11) its third win in four games. Jimmy Howard made 35 saves.
"I thought we grinded one out," Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall said. "It wasn't pretty all the time, but no passengers, everybody was going. Even though they scored, it felt like in [overtime] we carried the play and we were trying to make something happen, and in the end obviously we came away with two points."
Lehkonen carried the puck over the blue line and cut into the slot before beating Jimmy Howard with a wrist shot for the tying goal.
"When he was winding up for that shot I had the sense that he was shooting that thing to score, not just putting it on net, and it's great that a lot of guys have had that mindset as of late," Pacioretty said.

Justin Abdelkader scored a power-play goal 53 seconds into the first period. Montoya stuck out his left pad to make a remarkable save on Abdelkader's initial backhand shot, but Abdelkader lifted the puck over his pad and into the top of the net with another backhand shot on the rebound.
Montoya made 34 saves for Montreal, which won each game in a home-and-home series against Ottawa on Saturday and Sunday.
"I thought [Montoya] was awesome tonight," Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. "I thought he played extremely well, he kept us in the game, he gave us a chance to earn that point. He definitely deserves better, no doubt."

Goal of the game

After gathering the puck on the right boards in the Canadiens zone, Lehkonen heard his teammates telling him to skate with it on the play that led to his goal. "They were making a [line] change, so there was a lot of room in the neutral zone," Lehkonen said. "And when I got to their zone, I was trying to just shoot it past the [defenseman's] skate and try to hit the net, and it was good that it went in."

Save of the game

Montoya missed on his attempt to poke check the puck off Andreas Athanasiou in overtime, but recovered to scramble to his left across the crease and make a pad save on Athanasiou's wraparound shot.

Highlight of the game

Mantha deked around Canadiens forward Alex Galchenyuk and shot past defenseman Shea Weber and Montoya for the winning goal.

Unsung performance of the game

Red Wings defenseman Nick Jensen had four blocked shots, three shots on goal and one takeaway in 21:36 of ice time.

They said it

"Obviously, to get that power-play goal early was a big thing. I would have liked to have another one, but I think the big difference in the game by a country mile was our competitive level was excellent." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill
"We stuck around in this one, showed some character and got a big point." -- Canadiens goalie Al Montoya
Video: DET@MTL: Montoya denies Sheahan's backhand
"I split them up because there was nothing going on there. We needed a goal, so unfortunately I had to break up some lines that had done well together, but you work with that. And I have to get back to the drawing board [Wednesday] and see what I can do about it, whether I need to change things and whether there's hope there or something we can do to help that line out." -- Canadiens coach Claude Julien on moving center Alex Galchenyuk off the top line with Max Pacioretty and Alexander Radulov in the third period

Need to know

The Canadiens are 10-4-1 since Julien replaced Michel Therrien on Feb. 14. ... Montreal has scored seven goals in Montoya's past five starts.

What's next

Red Wings:Host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; FS-D, SUN,
NHL.TV
)
Canadiens: Host the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; SNE, RDS, FS-CR,
NHL.TV
)