Detroit Red Wings

Brad Stuart beats Habs goalie Carey Price, defenceman Roman Hamrlik for Detroit's first goal.

John Kenney, Gazette

NHL.com Preview | Saturday's NHL Schedule | Matchups | Boone's Game Blog and About last night ... | Stubbs on Twitter | Hickey's game story


• POSTGAME AUDIO: Mike Cammalleri I and II | Jacques Martin | Tomas Plekanec | Ryan O'Byrne 

Apologies for the delay; dressing-room duties came first tonight

• At a Glance: For a time, it seemed that early penalty trouble had dug the Canadiens an inescapable hole Saturday night. Then two third-period goals by Michael Cammalleri, his team-leading 10th and 11th of the season, lifted the Habs into overtime that morphed into a shootout. But shootout goals by Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg and a miss by Cammalleri and a struck goal post by Tomas Plekanec lifted the visiting Red Wings to a 3-2 victory at the Bell Centre.

Detroit Red Wings goaler Terry Sawchuk made hockey history 45 years ago tonight at the Montreal Forum, becoming the National Hockey League's shutout king.

With his 2-0 blanking of the Canadiens, Sawchuk recorded his 95th career regular-season shutout, passing former Hab George Hainsworth – Sawchuk's boyhood hero – who won the Vézina Trophy the first three years it was awarded.

Like so many greats of the NHL, Sawchuk is linked to the Canadiens. The goalie's 94th shutout also came against Montreal, at the Detroit Olympia two months earlier, to tie Hainsworth.

Canadiens' Christopher Higgins (left) and Tom Kostopoulos celebrate Higgins's goal, which gave the Habs a 3-0 lead.
Rebecca Cook, Reuters

Rosters | Tale of the Tape | Play-by-Play | Faceoffs
Game Summary | Event Summary | Hickey Story | Boone

Cancel the funeral – the Canadiens do indeed have a pulse. And a very strong one, given their 3-1 victory in Detroit tonight over the Stanley Cup-champion Red Wings.

The Habs played one of their strongest games of the season, scoring three second-period goals while enjoying the terrific goaltending of Carey Price.

The Canadiens improved to 12-5-4 with the impressive win, which was just the third regulation-time loss of the season for the Red Wings, now 14-3-4.

It also put at least a dent in Detroit's recent Motor City domination of Montreal, the Wings having won seven of their last eight against the Habs at the Joe Louis Arena before tonight. Since 1994, Detroit was 13-4-0 against the Habs.

It might have been a costly victory, however – the Habs played two-plus periods with with a shortened bench. Alex Tanguay, tied at 17 points with Koivu as the Habs' leading scorer going into the game, was flattened by a crushing, early first-period bodycheck along the boards by Detroit's Brad Stuart. He finished the shift but did not return.

Post-game audio:

• Carbo   • Higgins   • Lapierre   • Plekanec