MONTREAL — Carey Price made 20 saves and became the winningest goaltender in Canadiens history as Montreal defeated the Detroit Red Wings 3-1 on Tuesday night.
Price set a new Habs record with 315 victories, surpassing legendary Jacques Plante’s 314-win record established in 1963.
Max Domi scored twice and Brett Kulak added a goal as the Canadiens (37-26-7) snapped a two-game losing skid.
Tomas Tatar, who played for the Wings from 2010 to 2018, had two assists against his former team.
Andreas Athanasiou scored in the third period for the Red Wings (24-36-10), who have lost three games in a row. Jonathan Bernier stopped 33-of-35 shots in defeat. The Wings have won just once in their past 12 games.
The Canadiens have beaten Detroit in nine straight contests.
Despite the win, Montreal remains out of a playoff spot as both the Pittsburgh Penguins (83 points) and Columbus Blue Jackets (81 points) won on Tuesday to keep the playoff race close in the Eastern Conference. Montreal has 81 points with 12 games to play this season.
Price was on his game from the opening faceoff, stopping Athanasiou on the breakaway with a nice pad save in the game’s first minute.
With the game still scoreless in the second period, Price made a spectacular pad save on Michael Rasmussen before Shea Weber knocked the rebound away out of mid-air.
Domi gave Montreal the 1-0 lead at 12:27 of the second when he deflected Andrew Shaw’s hard pass from the half-wall past Bernier for his 23rd goal of the season.
Kulak made it 2-0 five minutes later with a one-timer through traffic that knuckled on Bernier and trickled past him.
Athanasiou cut the deficit when he beat Price between the pads 40 seconds into the third period.
With 12 minutes to play, Price made his biggest saves of the night. The 31-year-old was fully outstretched to deny Tyler Bertuzzi on the breakaway with his toe before freezing the puck on Frans Nielsen’s dangerous rebound.
The Canadiens goalie is 315-221-67 all-time in 12 seasons with the Canadiens. Plante, who played for the Habs from 1952 to 1963, was 314-133-107 in his career in Montreal. He also played for the New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins before playing 40 games for the World Hockey Association’s Edmonton Oilers in 1974-75.
Domi added the empty-netter with 49 seconds to play.
Notes: It was the last of four meetings between the Canadiens and Red Wings this season. … Dylan Larkin (neck injury) missed his fourth straight game.
Kelsey Patterson, The Canadian Press