DETROIT - The Montreal Canadiens left Detroit with a win and a scare.
Andrei Markov scored the only goal of the shootout to lift the Canadiens to a 3-2 exhibition win over the Red Wings on Wednesday night, a game marred by a frightening collision that left defenceman Mathieu Carle briefly unconscious on the ice.
Carle was carried off the ice on a stretcher 5:25 into the game after a hit by Detroit forward Tomas Kopecky at the Red Wings' blue-line.
Carle lay motionless and face down on the ice until he was attended to. He lost and regained consciousness on the ice and was taken to Detroit Medical Center for farther testing.
"He was awake when he went to the hospital," said Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau. "We gave him a couple of quick tests and he was fine . and he's going back with us."
The coach didn't think Kopecky's hit was dirty.
"First I thought it was a bad hit or some kind of blind side hit . But I came down and watched it (on tape)," said Carbonneau. "He (Kopecky) wasn't trying to gain speed, (he) just tried to make contact with Mathieu and he hit his head with the shoulder."
Kopecky said he had to do what was necessary.
"I've got to do my job" he said. "Obviously I hit him pretty hard and felt bad for him but it's the NHL, and you've got to have your head up, nobody's going to feel sorry for me."
Detroit also had a player go to the hospital. Captain Nicklas Lidstrom was hit in the face with a shot and was helped off the ice 3:05 into the third period. He took stitches above his right eye and went to Detroit Medical Center for precautionary X-rays.
"It's above the eye, (it) touched a bit of his nose and above his head, so they're going to send him over for some tests," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "(The injury is) nothing to do with his eye, so that's obviously the positive news."
Matt D'Agostini and Tomas Deauregard scored for Montreal in regulation.
Tomas Holmstrom and Justin Abdelkader got the goals for Detroit.
Deauregard tied it 2-2 for Montreal with a power-play goal with 7:51 left in the third period.
D'Agostini's power-play goal tied it 1-1 for the Canadiens 8:42 into the second period.
But Abdelkader scored a man-advantage goal with 3:23 left in the middle period to put the Red Wings back on top.
Holmstrom's power-play goal 5:35 into the first period gave Detroit a 1-0 lead.
Carey Price stopped 25 of 27 shots for Montreal and Cedric Desjardins all nine that he faced. Ty Conklin stopped seven of the eight shots against him for Detroit and Jimmy Howard made 10 saves on 11 shots.