About last night: Allen hurt himself in 3-2 overtime loss to Red Wings

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Already with a No. 1 goalie, the Montreal Canadiens lost backup Jake Allen to a possible concussion in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday at Little Caesars Arena.

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Samuel Montembeault made 22 saves and allowed three goals in relief. At the other end, Alex Nedeljkovic made 35 saves in the victory. Dylan Larkin scored twice, including the winner of overtime.

Coach Dominique Ducharme made no changes to the roster following his 4-2 win against the Calgary Flames on Thursday. It’s also worth noting: on the farm, Cole Caufield is regaining his scoring touch:

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Speaking of the Laval Rocket, the fourth line of recent summons from Michael Pezzetta, Ryan Poehling and Alex Belzile hit the roster for the first time. At 4:39 in the opening draw, Pezzetta skidded, stopped on a penny, and groomed Poehling for the first time since rejoining the Habs. It was Pezzetta’s first NHL point.

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The Canadiens led 1-0 after the first, but before returning to the locker room, Allen was involved in a collision with Larkin where the Red Wing captain appeared to get the worst of it, but the goalkeeper was retired and sent in with the concussion of the NHL. protocol. While it was Larkin who made contact, Habs defender Jeff Petry inadvertently guided the sprinter to his netminder.

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Montembeault entered with less than a minute into the first and returned for the start of the second. At 2:39, the Red Wings tied him up. From the corner around the goal line, Larkin fired from a seemingly impossible angle, but the puck found enough space between the goalie and under the crossbar for the 1-1 draw.

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Just 45 seconds later, Pius Suter put his team ahead. Suter received a deflected pass into the top of the slot from Robby Fabbri and beat out Montembeault’s glove side to make it 2-1 to Detroit.

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Soon after, Mitchell Stephens left the game after slipping and hitting the boards awkwardly. Both teams got their licks, including Moritz Seider who left his feet to hit Mike Hoffman, which the forward did not appreciate. Montembeault calmed down after a difficult start and the game remained 2-1 heading into third.

In the third, the Canadiens tied thanks to a strong individual effort from Artturi Lehkonen. After tangling with Fabbri on a close getaway, Lehkonen made heavy contact by sliding onto the boards. From his feet, he managed to throw a backhand pass to an open Chris Wideman up front. Wideman beat Nedeljkovic from right point to send the game into extra time.

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For the first time this season, the Canadiens accumulated points in three consecutive games. But a single point was all they would get on Saturday. Larkin scored his second of the night, again from a difficult angle along the goal line, to give his team a 3-2 victory in overtime. Between Larkin’s two and Caufield’s for Laval, that’s a lot of acute angle goals for one day.

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Although two of them lost in overtime, the Habs managed to rack up four points in three games this week, and they have another shot tomorrow in Boston against the Bruins. Of course, now all eyes are on the target’s situation. They’ve already called out pawn Cayden Primeau, who will join the team in Boston. Here’s what Liveblog commenters had to say about the game.

3. “That’s great for Ryan! If you can contribute, you can easily find a place on this team. Size and tenacity, you only need a little medium. “-Michael Paul

2. “In baseball parlance, MTL is 6.0 games behind one of the wild card spots, after 16 games.” -Rudi Hittisau

1. “This goalkeeper scares me.” -Ryan Katz