Their home stand ended as it began: with the Detroit Red Wings in position to win but coming up short.
They completed a five-game stretch at Little Caesars Arena with a 3-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens Tuesday. Former teammate Tomas Tatar set up two of the goals.
Andreas Athanasiou had a terrific performance, scoring twice to reach six goals in his last seven games and 17 on the season, one more than the output he had last season in 71 games. Jimmy Howard had a less than stellar night, but on the upside the power play finally flickered to life after flatlining the past couple weeks.