Red Wings Rally for Win over Canadiens

The Detroit Red Wings scored twice in the third period Thursday night, rallying for a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens.

With the game tied 1-1, former Detroit draft pick Tomas Fleischmann snapped a shot from the inside edge of the left faceoff circle past Red Wings’ netminder Petr Mrazek at 4:30 of the third, giving the Canadiens their first lead of the game.

With 7:32 left in regulation and Detroit on a power play, Justin Abdelkader redirected a pass by Henrik Zetterberg past Dustin Tokarski from the edge of the crease with his skate, tying things back up.

Darren Helm’s second of the night just 1:11 later was the eventual game-winner. Off a turnover by Greg Pateryn, Pavel Datsyuk kicked the puck to Helm, who cut across the goal mouth and flung a shot past Tokarski for a 3-2 lead.

Despite late pressure, the Canadiens would be unable to force overtime.

Detroit had opened the game’s scoring on Helm’s first goal of the game with 8:42 left in the second. Racing to the net, Helm gloved down a chip pass from Luke Glendening and put a quick shot behind Tokarski for the early lead.

Sven Andrighetto evened it up 2:03 later. Charles Hudon fired a heavy shot that Mrazek didn’t get all of and as the puck dropped in behind the Detroit goalie, Andrighetto was there to knock it into the net.

Mrazek finished the night with 23 saves on 25 shots while Tokarski, making his first start of the season, stopped 26 of 29.

The Red Wings are back in action Friday night when they visit the New Jersey Devils.