Hockey can be a cruel sport and the Detroit Red Wings found that out Tuesday in Montreal.

The Canadiens’ Josh Anderson scored his 15th goal midway in the third period, snapping a tie, and Brendan Gallagher and Nick Suzuki scored empty-net goals, sending Montreal to a 4-1 victory.

With the win, Montreal pretty much sewed up the second and final Eastern Conference wild-card spot. The Canadiens moved to an eight-point lead over the Wings, New York Rangers and Columbus (87-79). Montreal has four games left, while the trailing three teams have five games left.

Wings defenseman Albert Johansson lost his helmet on a collision behind the net. Knowing a penalty could be forthcoming if he continued on the play, Johansson started for the bench, leaving Anderson alone in front. Anderson converted Christian Dvorak’s pass past goaltender Cam Talbot, at 10 minutes, 48 seconds.

The Wings pressed and had a power play late in the third period. But the Wings failed to convert for the third time in the game.

Gallagher than scored into an empty net at 18:54, his 21st goal, and Suzuki scored his 28th at 19:07.

The Wings outshot Montreal, 23-4, in the first period, one of the best 20 minutes of hockey the Wings played this season and outshot Montreal, 36-21, in the game.

But the Wings couldn’t get the two-goal lead they needed early.

Montreal’s Cole Caufield scored his 37th goal late in the second period, tying the game at 1-1.

Caufield, the smallest skater on the ice, got into the net-front and backhanded a puck past Talbot at 16:29.

The goal after the Wings killed two Canadiens’ power plays — the last eight overall — and appeared to be taking further control of the game. But Caufield, one of the Canadiens’ flourishing young stars, got Montreal to even.

“They have a lot of good young players obviously having really good years and playing very well as a team,” forward Lucas Raymond said. “They are good team. They have a lot of skill, play with a lot of speed, edge and very efficient. I feel like they’ve had a good season. We know each other very well, just playing each other as many times as you do.”

Heading into Tuesday’s must-win game, coach Todd McLellan wanted the Wings to concentrate small-term, and not worry about the broader possibilities. But the strategy didn’t entirely come to pass.

“If we’re doing our job and we’re playing the way we can, we have to just focus on the next shift and worry about what we can control,” McLellan said. “That sounds very much like a cliche (but) it’s the truth.”

The Wings took an early lead on captain Dylan Larkin’s first goal in nine games.

After a bad pinch by Montreal, the Wings took off on a three-on-one rush with Patrick Kane skating with the puck. Kane got to the circle and fed a driving Larkin, who tapped the puck past goaltender Sam Montembeault for Larkin’s 29th goal.

The Wings received another strong performance from Talbot, who started his fifth consecutive game.

Talbot stopped a breakaway and a snuffed a three-on-two rush early in the second period, maintaining the Wings’ 1-0 lead.

“It’s everything this time of year when you get a guy that’s playing that way,” said Larkin Monday of Talbot. “He’s really been rock solid. He’s been a great addition to our locker room, a true pro. He works really hard on his game and takes care of himself. He’s fit in really well.

“He’s had a lot of success and we’ve needed him. He’s answered the bell this stretch.”

McLellan has seen a hot stretch from Talbot like this before when both were in Edmonton and Los Angeles.

“My experience with him, when he gets on a roll and gets playing, get him the rest he needs, make sure he feels good, put him back in,” McLellan said. “We believe he can keep doing it. He’s been excellent. He’s made some real big saves.”

DETROIT — Patrick Kane added to a long list of career achievements during Friday’s 5-3 victory over Carolina.

Kane’s second-period goal gave the Wings a 3-1 lead and was his 20th goal of the season. That gave Kane 17 20-goal seasons in his career, passing Westland’s Mike Modano (16 seasons) for most among U.S.-born skaters. Kane is tied with Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby among current players, while both trail Alex Ovechkin, who has 20 20-goal seasons.

The all-time leader? Gordie Howe, with 22.

But catching Modano, who finished his Hall of Fame career with one season on the Wings after a legendary career in Dallas, was an honor for Kane.

“He was one of my favorite players, to be honest with you,” Kane said. “I remember him a lot, just the way he skated up and down the ice, his jersey flapping behind him. He was one of the best American players of all time, so (there’s) a lot of respect for him and what he’s done in this league.

“And obviously he broke my heart in ‘99 when they beat the (Buffalo) Sabres in the Cup finals,” said Kane, who was a youngster growing up in Buffalo. “But definitely watching him growing up and how fun he was as a player, so explosive. He scored so many highlight-reel goals.”

Kane (at 36 years and 136 days) also became the oldest Wings’ player to score 20 goals in a season, passing Pavel Datsyuk (36 years, 218 days).

As coach Todd McLellan was walking to Friday’s post-game media conference, he was informed of all of Kane’s Friday accomplishments by media relations director Todd Beam.

“The walk wasn’t long enough to get through everything, which is remarkable,” McClellan said. “It’s an honor to be around him and watch him play and perform. He’s still like a young kid.”

Friday’s victory kept the Wings near the playoff chase, with Sunday’s home game against Florida (5:30 p.m./TNT/97.1) the next crucial game on the Wings’ schedule. There are only seven games left for the Wings, who need to continue to win and home the three teams close to them (Montreal, New York Rangers, Columbus) slip.

“You look at our schedule the rest of the way, it doesn’t really get any easier,” Kane said. “We can play against these top teams in the league, we proved that (Friday).”

‘Story isn’t done yet’

McLellan asked his team after the Four-Nations Tournament break whether they were more like the team that struggled up until the Christmas break, or the one that got on track after McLellan replaced Derek Lalonde as head coach.

The Wings have shown enough consistency since McLellan came aboard to believe they are closer to the post-Christmas team. But there’s plenty to play for in these final two weeks, with an opportunity to end an eight-year playoff drought for the organization.

The Wings were in a similar position late last season and missed the playoffs on the final night of the season on a tiebreaker. Did they learn from the experience to help them this time around?

“We’re going to find out,” McLellan said. “We talked about how the story isn’t done yet. We can still write another chapter, so let’s get playing the way we can. Don’t worry about standings or scores or anything like that. Last year’s experience with this group, I’m sure it helps. It can’t hurt. The belief system should be ‘we’ve been through this before, let’s keep pushing.’

“We’ll see what happens (Sunday) after Florida.”

Talbot starting again

Goaltender Cam Talbot will get his fourth consecutive start in net Sunday. McLellan wouldn’t speculate as to how he’d plan on using Talbot, or Alex Lyon, or Petr Mrazek (recovering from injury) next week, with a game Tuesday in Montreal, and a back-to-back in Florida and Tampa (Thursday/Friday).

The Wings need to be careful in not overusing Talbot, 37, with such a compact and pressure-packed schedule in the final seven games, and two weeks.

But Talbot loves the workload.

“I’m always kind of like that, I’ll play any game they tell me to play,” Talbot said. “I just try to keep myself in as good a shape as possible and just be ready anytime I get the call. This time of year is when you want to be playing and have the team and the coaching staff to have confidence in you.

“It’s not something I take lightly, and I prepare myself accordingly.”

DETROIT — This wasn’t the way the Red Wings had this weekend beginning.

Thursday’s opener to the two-game set with Columbus, capped by Saturday’s outdoor game at Ohio Stadium, means plenty for playoff positioning and the standings for both teams. To this point in the schedule, it’s the two most important games of the season.

Round one went to the Blue Jackets, who turned a big second period into a 5-2 victory.

The win moved the Jackets (29-22-8) into a tie with the Wings (30-23-6) with 66 points, occupying the two wild-card spots. The teams play again Saturday at Ohio Stadium (6 p.m./ESPN/97.1).

Alex DeBrincat and J.T. Compher (power play) had the Wings’ goals.

James van Riemsdyk had two Blue Jackets goals, Sean Kuraly and Kent Johnson had goals, with Kirill Marchenko adding an empty-net goal with just under a minute left to clinch the victory.

Marchenko dove to nudge the puck past defenseman Moritz Seider, Marchenko’s 24th goal, giving the Jackets a 5-2 lead.

Nobody was downplaying the significance of these two games after Thursday’s morning skate.

“Sometimes you don’t want to hype yourself up too much, but these are big games for us,” forward Patrick Kane said. “We’re in a situation where Columbus is below us in the standings, and we’re trying to create some separation.”

After a scoreless first period, Columbus scored four second-period goals taking a 4-2 lead into the final period.

DeBrincat opened the scoring with his 27th goal, just 27 seconds into the second period. Compher found DeBrincat open near the low circle and DeBrincat one-timed a shot past goalie Danil Tarasov.

But Columbus roared back with four consecutive goals.

van Riemsdyk scored the first of his two, deflecting Jake Christiansen’s shot from the point past Talbot at 4:16.

Kuraly broke the tie with his fifth goal, at 9:43. Kuraly drove to the net and batted down a puck to the side of the net, before knocking the puck past Talbot, giving Columbus a 3-1 lead.

Johnson, the former Michigan star, extended the lead to 3-1. Johnson got his stick on Dante Fabbro’s shot and redirected the shot past Talbot for his 20th goal at 12:08.

The Jackets weren’t done. van Riemsdyk scored his second, and 14th of the season, snapping Boone Jenner’s pass from in front of the net at 15:01.

Compher stopped the onslaught with his seventh goal, on the power play. Jonatan Berggren found Compher alone between the hashmarks and Compher cut the lead to 4-2 at 16:32.

The Wings stressed the importance of these two games after Thursday’s morning skate. The hoopla of Saturday’s outdoor game and the attention focused on these two teams who weren’t considered playoff contenders heading into even January, made it doubly vital to focus on the task of concentrating on the hockey.

“You can either take a big step in the standings here in these next two games or lose one,” DeBrincat said after the morning skate. “We have to come out hard. Obviously, first one at home is important and we can move on from there.”

Coach Todd McLellan added Saturday’s event makes it doubly interesting, but the games and points available are of the most importance.

“The games are very meaningful,” McLellan said. “Outdoor just adds a lot more drama to it. But on Sunday when we all wake up, the actual hockey part of it – the points and what comes out of it – will be the most important.”