MONTREAL -- Anthony Mantha sure likes scoring against his hometown team.

The 22-year-old, who hails from Longueuil, Quebec, on Montreal's south shore, scored a highlight-reel goal to lift the Detroit Red Wings to a 2-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre.

It was Mantha's third career goal against the Canadiens in five games played.

"It's a great feeling," said Mantha, who turned Alex Galchenyuk inside-out before using Shea Weber as a screen to beat Al Montoya with 50 seconds left in the extra frame. "I'd been having a bit of trouble scoring lately. To do it in Montreal, it's special."

Justin Abdelkader scored in regulation for the Red Wings. Artturi Lehkonen replied for Montreal (41-23-9), giving his team a point. The Canadiens are three points up on the Ottawa Senators in the battle for the Atlantic Division title.

Jimmy Howard stopped 35 shots for Detroit (29-32-11), while Montoya made 34 saves for the Canadiens.

"We would have liked to have gotten the second (point) for Monty, he played outstanding," Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty said of his goaltender, who came up with a tip-of-the-toe save on Andreas Anthanasiou in overtime, one of several notable stops in the five-minute period. "It's frustrating because we want to get Monty that extra point when he plays so well."

After getting off to a quick start in their previous outing, the Canadiens came out on the other end against Detroit, taking a penalty just 39 seconds into the contest.

The Red Wings' power play, which has spent nearly the entire season in the NHL's basement before moving up a spot on the weekend, connected for the third time in the past four games to get on the board first.

Niklas Kronwall fired a shot from the point, and Abdelkader, uncovered in front of the net, got a couple of whacks on the rebound before lifting a backhander over Montoya's pad 53 seconds into the game.

Detroit had the edge in the shots in the early going, putting up four before Montreal recorded its first nearly four minutes in.

"Obviously to get that power-play goal early is a big thing," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "I think the biggest difference in the game by a country mile is that our competitive level was excellent. It was good last night in the second and third, for sure, but wasn't good enough in the first, but tonight it was excellent."

The Canadiens appeared to find their legs in the second period, outshooting the Red Wings 14-9. A power play halfway through the frame opened the door for the potential equalizer, with Shea Weber hammering several slap shots, but none made it into the net.

"We talked about it before the game that teams that are out of the playoff hunt have nothing to lose so they were going to come out hard," Montreal defenseman Jeff Petry said. "I don't think we matched that intensity early on. They got the power-play goal, and I think Monty did a good job for us. We got going as the game went on, but our focus needs to be to dictate the pace from the opening faceoff."

The Canadiens had arguably their best opportunity of the night to tie it up midway through the third period with the man advantage. Montreal generated momentum while Detroit's Luke Glendening was without a stick, and Howard lost his a few moments later but couldn't convert.

Lehkonen tied it at 17:31 of the third period when he fired a wrister from the top of the right circle that beat Howard glove-side.

"There was a loose puck in our own end and guys were yelling, 'Skate, skate' so I did and (the Red Wings) were making a change so there was a lot of room in the neutral zone," the rookie said. "When I got to their zone, I thought I'd just try to shoot it past the defenseman's skate, and it hit the net, and it was good that it went in."

NOTES: Red Wings D Xavier Ouellet, who grew up in Montreal, suited up for a game at the Bell Centre for the first time in his career. ... The Canadiens made one lineup change from Sunday, inserting C Steve Ott to face his former team. ... Montreal scratched RW Michael McCarron, LW Andreas Martinsen and D Brandon Davidson. ... Detroit scratched C Darren Helm and C Ben Street. ... Montreal's Claude Julien coached his 1,012th NHL game, tying Terry Murray for 24th place in NHL history.