Montreal split weekend set with Sens

In Ottawa, the visiting Montreal Canadiens escaped the weekend with a split of their two-game set with the Senators on Saturday afternoon.

Jake Allen made 34 saves and the Habs downed the Sens, 2-1.

“He’s real calm in the net, you can see it throughout the whole game,” the Canadiens’ Nick Suzuki said. “He plays the puck well, he’s always pretty much making the first save and it’s up to us to find those rebounds. He’s played great every single game he’s been in the crease for us. We’re lucky to have him behind Carey (Price).”

Colin White scored the only goal for Ottawa against Allen, who is 4-1-0 on the season.

“At the end of the day, it certainly wasn’t perfect, but we had to find a way to win this game,” Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. “I thought we had another good first period, and even though it was 1-1, we were the dominant team.”

The Habs improved to 8-2-2.

“They came out with a heavy, heavy push at the start, which we knew they would do,” Senators coach D.J. Smith said. “We held it, got out of the first 1-1. At the end of the day, we lost the special teams battle (1-for-6 on the power-play; 2-for-3 on the penalty kill). But 5-on-5, I thought we played really hard, tracked (pucks), worked. There’s nothing to be faulted for that effort.”Jeff Petry and Josh Anderson scored for Montreal.

“We didn’t have everyone going tonight,” Julien said. “This was our fourth game in six nights, and sometimes fatigue sits in and you get those challenges, but the main thing is you find ways to win hockey games. I think we were good enough in that third (period) at defending that we were able to win.”

Ottawa dropped to 2-9-1 on the loss.

“When a player’s that dangerous, you’d have to be crazy if you’re on the other team and you’re not aware when he’s out there,” Smith said of Stutzle. “The penalties that he drew, they’re all high sticks, hit him in the face, but when you’re that fast, that happens. And he handles it fine; he’s been a superstar player his entire life.”Matt Murray made 30 saves  in the loss.

“I can’t even say [Murray has] been off this year; we’ve let in a lot of shots from inside the dots in those games that we got blown out,” White said. “The last two games, we’ve helped him out a lot and he’s been unbelievable.”