Robby Fabbri’s overtime goal lifts Detroit Red Wings to 4-3 win at Montreal Canadiens

MONTREAL — For all they did to make their dads cheer, the Detroit Red Wings made it difficult on themselves.

It began well enough Thursday at Centre Bell when the Wings built an early lead on the Montreal Canadiens, but neither the first nor the second nor the third one built much momentum. It wasn’t until halfway through overtime that Robby Fabbri secured a celebration, ending it at 4-3.

It’s the second straight game the Wings have won in overtime.

Michael Rasmussen, Jonatan Berggren and Oskar Sundqvist scored through two periods, but the Wings also let a 5 foot 9 seventh-round draft pick look like a superstar in that stretch. Ville Husso faced just 23 shots, but he made a couple of acrobatic saves on Kirby Dach and Mike Hoffman when the Habs got a power play with 64 seconds to play. Rasmussen amended for his penalty, which left the Wings shorthanded the first 56 seconds of overtime, when he set up Fabbri at 2:36.

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Moritz Seider assisted on the Wings’ last three goals to earn career multipoint game No. 13, putting him one shy of Nicklas Lidstrom for second-most by a Wings defenseman aged 21 or younger. (Seider turns 22 in April.)

It was the first stop on the dads trip, which continues Friday at the New York Islanders.

Manage and mismanage

Rasmussen took advantage of a bad pass attempt by Josh Anderson to intercept the puck early in the first period, went around defender Mike Matheson and popped a wrist shot behind Jake Allen. It was more of the good work Rasmussen has put in this season, and a continuation of his rave performance two nights earlier against the San Jose Sharks. Alas, the Wings mismanaged the puck soon after, with Ben Chiarot rushing a pass that Pius Suter fumbled and enabled Habs fourth-liner Michael Pezzetta to make it 1-1, at 5:54 of the first period.

Special goals

The Wings used a power play to build a 2-1 lead four minutes into the second period. Dylan Larkin fired the puck on net from the right circle, and Berggren scooped up the rebound and deposited it in the net for his eighth goal of the season. But egregiously, the Habs were able to use the next Wings power play to tie it. Moritz Seider was the only Wings player back when Dach and Rafael Harvery-Pinard came up ice on a rush, and Dach set up his teammate for a quick wrist shot that made it 2-2 three minutes after Berggren’s goal. Dominik Kubalik fired a shot that deflected in off Oskar Sundqvist at 13:30, but Alex Belzile got the puck in behind Jordan Oesterle on a play that led to Harvery-Pinard scoring his second goal, in what was just the ninth career game for the No. 201 pick in the 2019 draft.

Bertuzzi returns

Tyler Bertuzzi returned to the lineup after yet another stint in sick bay, but at least this time he only missed two games after leaving the Vegas game with a lower-body injury (he missed four after breaking one hand in October, and six weeks after breaking the other at the end of November). It was also Bertuzzi’s first game in Canada in nearly three years, because Bertuzzi’s decision not to get the COVID vaccine meant he was not able to travel to the Wings’ games in Canada last season. Coach Derek Lalonde has voiced frustration with how difficult it has been to get Bertuzzi up to speed regarding better puck management, but even so, played him on the top line with Larkin and Lucas Raymond.

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.

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Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.