The Ottawa Senators were in full prevention mode on Friday night. They prevented the Montreal Canadiens from extending their six-game winning streak, from clinching a playoff spot, and from sweeping their season series four straight.
With the building half full of Canadiens fans, it was a satisfying result for the Ottawa faithful.
The Senators defeated the Canadiens 5–2 at Canadian Tire Centre. Shane Pinto led the way with a goal to open the game and another to end it.
"Yeah, I thought we just got on them quick," Pinto told the media. "We got behind them, forechecked their D. I think that's been our M.O. all year and got 2 quick goals from it and it obviously set us up for a pretty good game."
The Senators outshot the Canadiens 33–22 on the night. The other goals came from Ridly Greig, Dylan Cozens and Drake Batherson. Michael Amadio had two assists.
The Senators got busy early in this one—just 28 seconds into the game. Pinto parked himself in front of Montreal's net and buried a nice centering pass from Greig. Both Greig and Amadio did some great forechecking to set up the opportunity. That line was outstanding all night.
Less than four minutes later, Cozens scored his first goal in 10 games, going hard to the net and burying a rebound after a shot from the point by Nikolas Matinpalo.
At that stage of the game, Brendan Gallagher decided it was a good time to settle old scores with Tim Stützle, whom he once very publicly accused of diving. The 5-foot-9 Gallagher tried to goad Stützle into a fight, but the young German wasn't having it. For his antics, Gallagher did nothing more than force his teammates to kill off a penalty.
The Sens struck again in the second. This time it was Greig parked in front of Montreal’s net. He took a pass from Amadio and buried it to make it 3–0 Ottawa.
The Senators, however, had a hard time making a three-goal lead stick on this night. Just over a minute later, Christian Dvorak got the Canadiens on the board. Tyler Kleven got too aggressive, pinching in the neutral zone while his partner, Matinpalo, was going off for a change. Dvorak took advantage, got a breakaway pass, and beat Linus Ullmark.
Batherson restored the lead, tipping home a shot from Thomas Chabot—but it was short-lived. Nick Suzuki picked up a loose puck in the slot after it was mishandled by Matinpalo. Suzuki, with 12 points in his last six games, was the wrong guy to give the right chance. He beat Ullmark to cut the lead to 4–2.
Ottawa didn’t get much offensive zone time in the third, but they also did a good job of limiting any chances around Ullmark. The Habs had just 4 shots in the final period.
With the goalie pulled, Lane Hutson sent an errant pass to the front of Ottawa’s net, right onto Nick Jensen’s stick. Jensen banked a long lead pass off the boards that Pinto caught up to and buried into an empty net for the dagger—ensuring Montreal would not clinch a playoff spot on this night, nor would they sweep the Senators this season.
The victory all but clinches the first wild-card spot for the Senators, who are now five points ahead of the Canadiens with just three games left. Ottawa’s next game will be Sunday afternoon at 1:00 PM, as they host the Philadelphia Flyers at Canadian Tire Centre.
