MONTREAL (AP) — Josh Anderson scored the winner with 9:12 remaining in the third period and Sam Montembeault made 35 saves as the Montreal Canadiens beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 on Tuesday night for their sixth straight win.

Cole Caufield – with his team-leading 37th – also scored while Brendan Gallagher and Nick Suzuki added empty-netters for Montreal, which strengthened its position in the playoff picture.

Montreal built an eight-point cushion over Detroit, the New York Rangers and the Columbus Blue Jackets for the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot with one more game played. The New York Islanders played the Nashville Predators later Tuesday.

By beating Detroit, Montreal also helped the Ottawa Senators clinch a playoff spot for the first time since 2017.

Dylan Larkin scored for Detroit and Cam Talbot stopped 17 shots. The Red Wings failed to earn a point for the first time in five games.

Takeaways

Canadiens: Another slow start for Montreal, which was playing its fifth game in eight nights. The Canadiens’ habit of struggling to start games reached a new level when the Red Wings poured on 23 shots in the first period, the most Montreal has allowed in a period this season.

Red Wings: Detroit’s first-period shot total wasn’t far off the 27.2 it averaged entering Tuesday’s game. The Red Wings’ playoff hopes died in this building last season despite pulling off a dramatic 5-4 shootout win in their regular-season finale.

Key moment

After Caufield’s equalizer, Detroit’s J.T. Compher missed a gaping net after a weird bounce around the boards left Montembeault out of his net. Compher’s attempt floated high.

Key stat

Suzuki reached 86 points this season, giving him the highest total by a Canadien since Pierre Turgeon (96) and Vincent Damphousse (94) in 1995-96 — more than three years before Montreal’s captain was born.

Up next

Detroit plays the second game of a three-game trip at Florida on Thursday. Montreal is at Ottawa on Friday.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl