DETROIT (AP) - For the first time in more than three months, the Red Wings have a winning streak at home.
Henrik Zetterberg, Nicklas Kronwall and Gustav Nyquist each had a goal and an assist to lead Detroit past the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 on Friday night for its second consecutive victory at Joe Louis Arena.
The last time the Red Wings won two in a row at home was Oct. 12-15. They beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks 5-4 in a shootout Wednesday night.
“Obviously, real important. It’s like anything, some years you win lots of games at home and some years you don’t,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “Some years you’re good on the road and some years you’re not and you never really figure out why. But we have an opportunity here on Sunday to keep things going and we’d like to.”
Detroit is 3-1 on a five-game homestand that ends Sunday against Florida.
“Try to get a template that we can hang our hat on and play every night. It’s hard because we were playing pretty solid and we lose those back-to-back games 1-0,” defenseman Kyle Quincey said. “It’s hard to tell the boys to keep going and it’ll come, but then you play Chicago and we end up scoring (four) goals and winning and now you’re saying, ’Keep playing like that.’ Again we scored four goals tonight and I think we believe if we keep playing like that we’ll be OK.”
Riley Sheahan also scored for Detroit, and Jonas Gustavsson made 30 saves.
Brendan Gallagher had the goal for Montreal, and Carey Price stopped 22 shots.
“Just little, unfortunate breakdowns that we know better. Just little things cost us,” Gallagher said.
Kronwall gave the Red Wings a 3-1 lead with 3:31 left in the second period. He scored his sixth goal of the season on a one-timer from the slot after Nyquist’s pass went off Gallagher’s stick.
“I read the play, I was where I wanted to be. I was ready but I got ahead of myself,” Gallagher said.
Nyquist added his eighth goal with 1:19 remaining in the game.
Gallagher put the Canadiens on the board with a power-play goal with 7:24 left in the second period. He jammed one past Gustavsson after carrying the puck from the side of the net to the crease for his 13th goal.
Sheahan made it 2-0 Detroit with 8:12 remaining in the second. He beat Price with a snap shot from the top of the left circle for his second goal.
Gustavsson made a nice save on Louis Leblanc’s backhand from the bottom of the left circle with 3:07 remaining in the first.
Zetterberg opened the scoring with 7:33 left in the first period. With the Red Wings on a 5-on-3 power play, he put in a one-time slap shot from the high slot for his 16th goal.
Gustavsson stopped the Tomas Plekanec on a short-handed breakaway with about 8:50 left in the opening period.
NOTES: Detroit RW Daniel Alfredsson returned after missing six games with back spasms. … The teams last met two years ago, when Montreal won 7-2 at the Bell Centre. The Canadiens’ last visit to Detroit was Dec. 10, 2010, and the Red Wings won 4-2. … Detroit was without C Pavel Datsyuk (lower body), G Jimmy Howard (knee), RW Johan Franzen (post-concussion syndrome), C Joakim Andersson (lower body), C Steven Weiss (groin) and C Cory Emmerton (finger). … Montreal LW Max Pacioretty played college hockey at Michigan. … Canadiens assistant coach Gerard Gallant played nine of his 11 NHL seasons with Detroit. … Montreal defenseman Alexei Emelin was helped off the ice with 7:08 left in the third period after taking Kronwall’s shot off his knee. Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said Emelin was fine after the game.
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