Jonathan Drouin scored his first two goals of the season, Tomas Plekanec added a goal during the 1,000th game of his career, and the Montreal Canadiens manhandled the winless Detroit Red Wings 7-3 on Monday.

Ex-Wing Tomas Tatar supplied a goal and two assists, while Brendan Gallagher, Charles Hudon and Paul Byron also chipped in goals for the Canadiens. Antti Niemi stopped 25 shots.

Andreas Athanasiou collected his first two goals of the season for Detroit, and Thomas Vanek also scored. Jimmy Howard and Jonathan Bernier combined for 28 saves. Howard was removed early in the second period after surrendering five goals on 20 shots.

Montreal jumped to a 3-1 lead in the opening period.

Niemi turned aside Athanasiou's breakaway shot five minutes in the game.

Montreal was awarded a penalty shot at the 7:13 mark when Filip Hronek slashed Drouin from behind on a two-on-none break. Drouin then beat Howard on the stick side.

Plekanec made it 2-0 at 16:56 when he skated in from the left side, steered past Howard and flicked a shot that bounced off Hronek's stick and into the goal.

Athanasiou scored less than a minute later out front off assists from Tyler Bertuzzi and Hronek.

The Canadiens killed it off a Wings power play without allowing a shot late in the period, then scored on a lucky bounce.

Tatar took a shot during a scramble in front of the goal, and the puck deflected up and over Howard's right shoulder.

Montreal piled on three more goals in the second period to increase its lead to 6-1.

Gallagher received a pass from Tatar and scored from point-blank range at 3:52 of the middle period.

Hudon's goal less than a minute later convinced Detroit coach Jeff Blashill to pull Howard.

With just over four minutes left in the period, Drouin tucked in his second goal during another wild scramble in front of the net. He beat Bernier on the power play after Dylan Larkin was whistled for a delay-of-game infraction.

Athanasiou collected his second goal at 7:03 of the third, tapping in a pass from Luke Glendening. Vanek added a power play goal midway through the period. Byron scored his third goal of the season with less than two minutes remaining.

--Field Level Media