Montoya salvages key point in OT loss

The bottom line: The Canadiens pulled off another third-period comeback as Artturi Lehkonen scored at 17:31 to tie the game at 1, but Anthony Mantha scored at 4:10 of overtime to give the Detroit Red Wings a 2-1 win over Montreal Tuesday night at the Bell Centre. Until Lehkonen scored his 13th of the season, the game belonged to Detroit goaltender James Russell Howard III, a.k.a. Jimmy Howard. Howard had missed 37 games with injuries this season, but now healthy, he stopped 34 shots before Lehkonen beat him with a low shot on the glove side. Al Montoya made a rare start at the Bell Centre and gave the Habs a chance to win after Justin Abdelkader scored a powerplay goal in the first minute.

Scoreboard watching: While the Canadiens were frittering away their chances, the Ottawa Senators rekindled their hopes of winning the Atlantic Division with a 3-2 win over the Bruins in Boston. With the win, the second-place Senators are three points behind the Canadiens and they continue to hold a game in hand.

Abdelkader strikes early: This hasn’t been a banner year for Abdelkader (even if you factor in the knee injury that sidelined him for the month of December) but he gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead when he scored a power-play goal at the 53-second mark of the first period. Abdelkader was parked in front of the net when he stopped Niklas Kronwall’s pass from the blue-line. Montoya made a leg save on Abdelkader’s first two shots, but Abdelkader was able to lift the rebound over the goaltender.

Firing blanks: The Canadiens came out with a vengeance in the second period and outshot the Red Wings 7-0 over the first eight minutes, but were unable to score. They also came up empty on a power play later in the period, despite keeping the pressure on for most of the two minutes. Montreal outshot Detroit 14-9 in the period.

Power outage: The Canadiens went 0-for-3 on the power play. Over the past nine games, they have scored only one power-play goal in 21 opportunities. Over the same period, the opposition has three goals on 15 opportunities, a success rate of 20 per cent. The Red Wings scored on their only advantage.

More home cooking: This was the second of six consecutive home games for the Canadiens. The Carolina Hurricanes are in town Thursday (7:30 p.m., Sportsnet East, RDS, TSN-690 Radio) and on Saturday, the Canadiens will play the Ottawa Senators for the third time in eight nights.