Montreal Canadiens’ Brendan Gallagher skates in as the puck crosses the goal line during a game against the Detroit Red Wings at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Que., on March 26, 2018.Minas Panagiotakis
Brendan Gallagher scored twice, including his 30th of the season, as the Montreal Canadiens defeated the visiting Detroit Red Wings 4-2 on Monday.
Paul Byron and Alex Galchenyuk also scored for Montreal (28-37-12). Carey Price made 26 saves for his first victory since Feb. 4. He was 0-5-2 since then.
Gustav Nyquist and Tyler Bertuzzi scored for Detroit (27-38-11) while goalie Jared Coreau stopped 27-of-31 shots in his fifth game of the season. Coreau is 0-4-0 this year.
Both the Canadiens and Red Wings have already been eliminated from playoff contention and will be in the thick of this summer's draft lottery. Montreal is 26th in the NHL, three points ahead of 27th-place Detroit.
The Red Wings have won just once in their last 14 games (1-12-1).
Gallagher recorded his 48th and 49th points of the season. His previous career high was 47.
With the game tied 1-1 in the second period, Gallagher scored his first of the game and team-leading 29th of the year at 4:27 to give the Canadiens the lead. The Habs forward threw the puck on net from the corner of the ice and it bounced off Red Wings defenceman Danny DeKeyser's skate and in.
The Edmonton native, who has now scored in three consecutive contests, notched his 30th at 9:32 when he tipped a shot by Mike Reilly on net. The puck went off Coreau's skate, landed in the crease, and the Red Wings goalie accidentally knocked it in himself.
Gallagher came inches away from netting his first career hat trick. With 4:26 remaining in the game, Jeff Petry's shot from the blue line trickled past Coreau. Gallagher came close to knocking it in but Galchenyuk got his stick on it first to make it 4-2.
Bertuzzi got one back for the visitors at 13:41 of the second when he squeezed a loose puck between Price's pads.
The teams traded goals in the first period.
Nyquist got the first at 4:41 with a hard one-timer before Byron responded, on the power play, with a backhand shot off the post and in at 18:11 for his 19th of the year.
Notes: Several Canadian Olympians were honoured in a pre-game ceremony, including medallists Kim Boutin, Charles Hamelin, Justine Dufour-Lapointe and Mikael Kingsbury.
The NHL plans to give the final decision on goalie interference video reviews to its situation room. Commissioner Gary Bettman says the coach’s challenge should only be used for “glaring” errors.
The Canadian Press