With the Ottawa Senators facing elimination, it seemed that they would need a superhuman effort from their starting goaltender, Craig Anderson. That’s exactly what they got. Anderson, making his second start in the series after a hand injury, stopped all 28 shots that he faced to secure a 1-0 victory for Ottawa.
“We have a hard road to travel and there’s no reason why we can’t be in the next game 
also,” Anderson said. “We’ve been in all four games now. We’ve been right there. They’ve all been one-goal games. We just need to make sure we’re ready to go and bring it all again.”
By doing so, he helped the Senators stave off elimination for at least a couple of days.
“I still don’t think it was the best game we played in the series,” Senators captain Erik Karlsson said. “We found a way to win and that’s what’s important. We live to see another day.”
They now trail the best-of-seven series by a margin of three games to one. Carey Price was nearly as good as Anderson, but did allow one goal on 32 shots.
“I thought he was very responsible the game before away from the puck,” Ottawa coach Dave Cameron said. “And then he was responsible at the start of tonight’s game … so you put him there and he rewards you.”
For the first time in this series, Ottawa was unable to score in the first period and take an early lead. Montreal held an 11-9 edge in shots but quality scoring chances were few and far between. Ottawa killed off two Montreal power plays in the period, but otherwise controlled most of the play. The Canadiens’ power play continued to be ineffectual, ending the night at 0-for-3 and currently sitting at a dismal 6.2% for the playoffs.
Ottawa seemed to control most of the second period (a weak point for them in the series to date), at times hemming Montreal in their own zone for minutes at a time. It almost looked as if they were on the power play when they were, in fact, at even strength. Ironically, the Senators power play gave up Montreal’s best scoring chance of the game. Brandon Prust took a lead pass from P.K. Subban and went in on a clean breakaway from the red line in. He deked to the backhand then pulled back to the forehand and attempted to stuff it in, but Anderson’s pad closed the gap and Prust’s attempt hit the post.
The Senators managed twelve shots on goal in the third period, while limiting the Canadiens to seven. The bulk of the chances seemed to favor Ottawa, with Price making several key saves to maintain the stalemate. It wasn’t until 9:05 of the third period that somebody finally dented the twine. Cody Ceci knocked down a clearing attempt at the left point, and then passed the puck to Senators rookie Mike Hoffman in the slot. Hoffman fired a quick wrist shot just as Mika Zibanejad crossed Price’s line of vision. Price never saw the puck until it was too late.
“We needed to get bodies in the way of Price because he’s one of the best goalies in the world,” Hoffman said. “Mika did a great job of screening him there and it made it easy on me.
“Great play by [Zibanejad]. He might not have got an assist on the play, but if he wasn’t in front of Price there, he probably would have saved it. Hard work by him and a big reason why it went in.”
After taking the lead, the Senators still had to hold it for more than half a period to seal the win. Their defense tightened up and limited Montreal’s opportunities, even managing to stifle their early attempts to pull Price for an extra attacker. In the waning moments, the Canadiens were unable to mount much of a threat and the Senators held on to the shutout, the third of Anderson’s career in the playoffs.
Karlsson said, “I think this has been a great run we’ve been on. We’ve had a lot of fun with this group and we have a great group of guys. We’re enjoying this. We worked really hard to get to where we are today. We’re not going to go down without a fight.”
As expected, this has been a very tightly contested series, with each game being decided by one goal. Game Five returns to the Molson Centre in Montreal on Friday.
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