MONTREAL – Starting his first game of the 2026-27 regular season for the Detroit Red Wings, less than 24 hours after making his Winged Wheel debut in relief, goaltender Daniil Tarasov turned aside all 30 shots he faced in regulation and overtime in an eventual 1-0 shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Saturday night.
“(Tarasov) was outstanding,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “The first one that we thought slipped by him, I thought once he got over that and took a breath, he held us in early and then made some big saves when we needed. So, even in the shootout, he was outstanding there, so pretty good goaltender battle tonight between the two of them.”
Detroit (1-3-1; 3 points) went 0-for-4 on the power play but a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill against Montreal (2-2-1; 5 points), which snapped a three-game winless streak behind a 30-save performance from netminder Jacob Fowler.
Saturday's result also marked the first 0-0 game through 60 minutes between these two clubs since Game 5 of the 1954 Stanley Cup Finals.
“We played hard tonight,” Dylan Larkin said. “On the back-to-back, a game where we needed the results against a good team, we dove into the work and did a good job working together.”
The Canadiens thought they’d stung the Red Wings with an early one just 1:16 into the game, but a lengthy video review determined that Cole Caufield’s sharp-angle shot from the goal line didn’t completely slip behind Tarasov. And despite being under siege for most of the frame, the Red Wings had some decent looks on two man-advantage tries— one with 30 seconds of a 5-on-3.
"I thought we played pretty good, honestly," Lucas Raymond said of his club's performance on the man advantage. "Kind of similiar to 5-on-5, we had the chances. We just have to find ways to put it in the back of the net."
Detroit again avoided falling behind at 7:03 of the second period when Jake Evans interfered with Tarasov in the crease as Zachary Bolduc’s shot came through from the right face-off circle, and the goal was waved off for goaltender interference. But just like the first, the second 20 minutes didn’t result in any goals.
Fowler made a nice save on Andrew Copp’s breakaway try just 3:37 into the third period, which saw the Red Wings outshoot the Canadiens by a slim 9-7 margin.
With 2:23 left in overtime, Alexandre Texier sent in a wrist shot that looked to have won it for Montreal. However, Detroit’s successful coach’s challenge showed Bolduc was offside, erasing the goal and quieting the Bell Centre crowd a little bit.
“I think, to be honest, we got a couple of lucky bounces with those disallowed goals,” Raymond said. “But I thought we played really solid defensively. PK was really good. We just got to be more efficient on offense.”
Bolduc proved to be lone scorer in the six-round shootout on either Atlantic Division squad.
“I thought it was a real gutsy effort on our behalf,” McLellan said. “Back-to-backs aren’t easy, especially early in the year. That team came out real hungry. We had to weather a storm early. Played even after that. It would’ve been nice to find a way to get one in the shootout, but not a lot of complaints.”
NEXT UP: The Red Wings will be back at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday night, kicking off a three-game homestand with an Eastern Conference showdown versus the New Jersey Devils.
