Ville Husso made 29 saves in his Detroit Red Wings debut, a 3-0 season-opening victory over the visiting Montreal Canadiens on Friday.
Jake Allen made 37 saves in defeat for Montreal, which is 1-1 this season.
Making his NHL debut, 2019 draft pick Elmer Soderblom scored the eventual game-winning goal in the third period for Detroit, which had Derek Lalonde behind the bench in his first game as an NHL head coach.
Michael Rasmussen had a hand in all three goals, scoring once and adding two assists.
After two scoreless periods, Detroit broke through with 17:27 remaining.
Following some pressure in the Montreal zone, a wraparound attempt by Rasmussen was saved by Allen, but the rebound went in front of the goal to Soderblom, who put the puck past Allen to give Detroit a 1-0 lead.
With 2:26 left, Montreal decided to pull Allen for an extra attacker.
But the Canadiens couldn’t generate any serious chances before Detroit put the game away with 1:01 remaining on an empty-net goal by Rasmussen.
After the Red Wings got the puck out of their zone, Andrew Copp fed a pass from center ice into the Montreal zone to Rasmussen, who pushed the puck into the empty net to make it 2-0 Detroit.
The Red Wings made it 3-0 with 47.9 seconds left when Olli Maatta fired a shot from center ice into the empty net.
That was more than enough for Husso, who was acquired from St. Louis in July.
Detroit carried the play in the first period, outshooting Montreal by a 25-10 margin.
The 25 shots were more than Detroit had in a period during any game last season.
The second period was more even, with Detroit outshooting Montreal 9-8.
Each team was 0-for-3 on the power play, while Detroit outhit Montreal, 38-24.
–Field Level Media