Red Wings eliminated from playoff race despite comeback victory against Canadiens

MONTREAL -- The Detroit Red Wings fell short in their bid for a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs despite a 5-4 shootout win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

David Perron scored with five seconds left in the third period on a slap shot from the point through traffic to tie it 4-4. That kept Detroit’s playoff hopes temporarily alive, but soon after the Washington Capitals clinched the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference with a 2-1 win against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin learned they had been eliminated “just before the shootout.”

"It's hard, it's gutting,” Larkin said. “We’re pretty sad in here just to see it come to an end. And we have a great group of guys, a great, you know, fun year, great year, and to see it come to an end like that, is very, very sad, very hard."

Moritz Seider, Joe Veleno and Daniel Sprong scored, and James Reimer made 29 saves for Detroit (41-32-9), which went to overtime in each of its final four games (2-0-2).

“It’s crazy. It stings a lot, obviously,” Perron said. “You look at the clock, there’s seven seconds (remaining), and then scoring that goal. And then to come back to the bench you hear not too long after that obviously Philly is thinking that we’re losing that game, maybe, they pull their goalie, they do their thing and (Washington) scores.

“So it hurts a lot. You see guys in the room very emotional. It’s one of their first big letdowns probably playing these games for everyone, but for a lot of our young guys it’s massive to have a little nervousness before a game, making little mistakes that end up in our net. Everything hurts so much, it just gets magnified.”

Patrick Kane scored on Detroit’s third attempt in the shootout to seal its second straight come-from-behind win against Montreal.

“I didn’t know fully, I think some of the other guys knew,” Kane said. “Even at the end it didn’t seem like there was much of a reaction coming off the bench, so I figured there wasn’t too much to celebrate.”

Juraj Slafkovsky and Brendan Gallagher each had a goal and an assist, and Logan Mailloux had an assist in his NHL debut for Montreal (30-36-16), which lost to the Red Wings 5-4 in overtime on Monday. Cayden Primeau made 36 saves.

“It was cool,” Mailloux said. “It was playoff hockey out there it felt like. So obviously it didn’t go our way, but it was a good game.”

The Red Wings trailed 4-1 at home Monday before scoring four straight to win.

“I’m so honored to be a part of it, these guys that never quit,” Larkin said. “We had a very close-knit group this year and to have the last month, the last two weeks that we’ve had where we just wouldn’t go away, we wouldn’t die. And comeback after comeback, and just so much fun, and I wish we had more with this group and wish we got the opportunity to play in the playoffs. It would have been so much fun.”

Alex Newhook gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 11:32 of the first period. His one-timer from the right side on a 2-on-1 pass from Gallagher went in off Reimer’s outstretched glove.

Mailloux, who was recalled from Laval of the American Hockey League on Monday, had the secondary assist for his first NHL point.

“It’s a little weight off the shoulders, it makes the legs feel a little better too,” Mailloux said. “It was a nice play by [Joel] Armia on the wall and then I saw 'Gally' going and I hit him and he made a hell of a sauce over to 'Newie,' so it was a nice play.”

Seider tied it 1-1 at 18:29 with a one-timer glove side on Primeau off Larkin’s pass back to the point.

Gallagher put Montreal up 2-1 at 6:17 of the second period. He swatted the puck over the goal line for his third goal in two games after the rebound of Armia’s shot sat loose in the crease behind Reimer.

Cole Caufield pushed it to 3-1 at 10:09, jamming in a rebound of Slafkovsky’s one-timer from the right face-off circle.

Veleno got the Red Wings to within 3-2 at 10:45, scoring five-hole on the rebound of Shayne Gostisbehere’s shot from the left point.

Sprong tied it 3-3 at 3:31 when his shot from behind the goal line in the right corner banked into the net off Primeau.

Slafkovsky put Montreal up 4-3 at 12:46 of the third period. He was in front of the net to tip in Lane Hutson’s wrist shot from the point.

“I knew it didn’t change direction that much,” Hutson said. “But it was a great tip by him.”

NOTES: Perron’s goal was the third-latest tying goal the Red Wings have scored in the past 10 years. Tomas Tatar scored at 19:58 of the third period on March 3, 2017, just over two months after Anthony Mantha scored a game-tying goal at 19:58 of the third period on Jan. 1, 2017. … It was the third time in Red Wings history they overcame multigoal deficits in games on consecutive days. Detroit previously accomplished the feat Dec. 4-5, 1984, and on Nov. 9-10, 2018. … Slafkovsky is the fifth Canadiens player at the age of 20 or younger to have a 20-goal season. Guy Lafleur (29 goals in 1971-72), Stephane Richer (21 in 1985-86, and 20 in 1986-87), Mario Tremblay (21 in 1974-75), and Bernie Geoffrion (20 in 1951-52) are the others. … Canadiens forward Michael Pezzetta left after his first shift of the game with an upper-body injury.