Montreal 4, Detroit 3 (OT): Wings clinch playoff spot

MONTREAL -- Mike Babcock didn't think his Detroit Red Wings were good enough to make the playoffs.

That was his feeling July 5. Thursday, he celebrated their 24th straight trip there despite losing, 4-3 in overtime, to the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre. The Wings were helped by the Boston Bruins, who lost in regulation to Florida. Who the Wings play remains to be determined, but play next week they will.

"It's probably the first game I was scoreboard watching in the end," Henrik Zetterberg said. "It was a good feeling.

"We'll take it."

BOX SCORE

Niklas Kronwall admitted "it's definitely a weird scenario. But we found a way to get a point, and that got us in."

Babcock spoke of the history of the streak, especially in his decade behind the bench. He said he didn't think it'd be continued back in July. "I thought we had no chance," he said, because he wasn't sure the young guys would be good enough.

"I'm proud of the guys," Babcock said. "People talk about 24 years, but for me, the 10 years since the lockout, we're the only team in the NHL to make it all 10 times. The last three years, we've been grinding to get in. We've changed our group totally, and to find a way, I think has been incredible."

Not the whole group has changed. Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Niklas Kronwall -- the latter two alternate captains -- have been there all along. Zetterberg and Datsyuk each have four points the last two games.

"If you're Kronwall, and those two guys, Datsyuk and Zetterberg, they feel like I do," Babcock said. "You feel like you've got an obligation to the city."

Zetterberg had two assists and Datsyuk a goal and an assist. Tomas Tatar and Darren Helm also scored.

Clinching will give the Wings the ability to rest Datsyuk and Zetterberg, among others, for Saturday's closer at Carolina. Babcock said Datsyuk has been playing hurt, and guessed players would be called up from the minors to flesh out the roster for the last game.

His bigger decision centers on goaltending. Babcock didn't like Jeff Petry scoring on a clear shot, Tomas Plekenac banking a shot in off Jimmy Howard, or Lars Eller angling the puck in overtime. "They can't go in," Babcock said. "It's the National Hockey League. They can't go in."

Asked if he has a No. 1 guy, Babcock hesitated, then said, "I'm going to have a beer and think about that."

Howard admitted he was at fault on the last goal. "I started to cheat in overtime," he said. "I saw the Montreal guy coming down hard on the outside. I was thinking he was going to throw it across. In that case, you've just got to stick with the shooter, never mind the guy on the outside."

Brendan Smith was behind another egregious moment, one that created the situation for the Habs to make it 3-3 after Helm had burned them for a shorthanded goal early in the third period. Smith used his hand to knock at the puck as it passed him while sitting on Detroit's bench, an absolute no-no that resulted in a 52-second 5-on-3 power play for the Habs. Plekanec scored 30 seconds later.

Smith refused to talk to reporters. Asked why the Wings argued with the officials over the interference call (served by Riley Sheahan), Zetterberg said, "I think we were just arguing. We weren't sure if anyone saw it. Then you see replay. He reached out and touched the puck. It is 2 minutes."

Babcock called it "crazy. I watched the whole thing. We should have went to the box. It should have been 5-on-3."

An energetic start saw the Wings get a handful of shots on Carey Price within 6 minutes, but their first power play was as bad as all the rest of them, as the Wings got just four shots on net during five total man advantages.

"We had a lot of opportunities on power play and couldn't get it going at all," Zetterberg said. "Couldn't get into their zone. If we would have capitalized a little better there, it would have been a different outcome."

Datsyuk stole the puck off Brendan Gallagher for a give-and-go with Zetterberg that ended with Tatar scoring midway through the first period. Andrei Markov tied it up when he one-timed a pass from P.K. Subban from the blue line seconds after a faceoff in Detroit's zone. Petry, from Ann Arbor, made it 2-1 just 6 minutes into the second period, on a short shot from the left side. It was Datsyuk to the rescue 2 minutes later, when he weaved up the middle and made a quick move to beat Price for a tie score headed into the third period.

That period began well enough when Helm took off on a shorthanded breakaway and went backhand to forehand to beat Price, as the Wings scored more goals on him this night than the first three games combined. Another Detroit power play was squandered, and then Habs used Smith's brain freeze and Howard's bad read to rally.

"Plekanec did a good job of disguising it," Howard said. "I thought he was going to whip it across. He turned his wrist over at the last second. Stay with the puck."

That's one of the things the Wings have to get sorted out before the playoffs start. But for the Wings, for one night, they took satisfaction in that they will, again, start the playoffs.

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

Chasing the playoffs

The top-three teams in each division make the playoffs, with the top-two wild-card teams also making the postseason. The top team in each division faces a wild-card team, with the best overall record facing the wild card with the worst record; the second- and third-place teams in each division play in the first round as well. How it looks in the Eastern Conference after Thursday's games:

x-clinched playoffs, y-already eliminated.

Atlantic

GR PTS 1. x-Montreal 1 108 2. x-Tampa Bay 1 106 3. x-Detroit 1 98 4. Ottawa 1 97 5. Boston 1 95

Metropolitan

GR PTS 1. x-Rangers 1 111 2. x-Wash. 1 101 3. x-Islanders 2 98 4. Pittsburgh 2 96 5. y-Columbus 2 85

Wild-card race