The three-game sweep starts in Montreal where the Habs have had recent issues winning only one of their last five games. In the meantime, the Ottawa Senators needed a win to keep pace or gain on the Boston Bruins.
Rookie goalie Andrew Hammond continued his other-worldly start to his career with a 5-2 win for the Sens.
“We know that to make the playoffs we need to go on a run here and to not have anyone pack it in and keep fighting when we’re down 2-0 just shows the care in the locker room and that we’re going to see this thing through, and I think it’s just a big asset that we have that character in here,” Hammond said.
Hammond has not allowed more than two goals in any of his nine starts.
“I don’t want to take anything away from his game [Thursday], but it was one of his easiest games because I think it was the best we’ve played in front of him,” Ottawa coach Dave Cameron said. “When your team is down 2-0 early, through no fault of his, you look for your team to rebound, but more importantly you look for your goalie to rebound, and he held the fort. He held the fort and we played much better, and from top to bottom I thought we were real solid the last two periods.”
Erik Karlsson scored twice for the Sens and Mark Stone, Erik Condra and Marc Methot also scored.
“Did they get some fortunate bounces? They did, but they worked hard for their bounces,” Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban said. “I find that when you’re working hard you get those types of bounces. They worked extremely hard tonight. We knew that they’re a team that’s battling to make the playoffs, they’re battling for their lives every night, and we had to match that intensity.”
The Habs’ goals came from Max Pacioretty, both in the first period when the Habs had a 2-0 lead.
In San Jose, Antti Niemi 35 saves and heaped more woes on the Nashville Predators in a 2-0 win for the Sharks.
“Nemo was very strong again tonight,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. “He looks very confident, and the team feels good with him in there right now. He made some very difficult saves look easy. There wasn’t a lot of leftovers laying around the crease areas.”
The Sharks are three points back of the Calgary Flames for the wild card.
“You’ve got a little momentum, but you just got to bring it every night at this point,” Sharks defenseman Justin Braun said. “You can’t think about the last game. You just got to think about the next one going forward, get those two points.”
The Preds lost for the seventh time in eight games.
Antti Niemi picked up shutout win over Preds – file photo by Jack Lima
“The guys played hard,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “The chances were in our favor, the shots in our favor, possession in our favor but we didn’t get it done. Ultimately we need to win hockey games. We have to find a way to score, maybe create more traffic and try and get second opportunities. It’s frustrating not to score.”
In Detroit, the Rec Wings were looking to build a few more points in the standings against the oft injured Columbus Blue Jackets.
Fedor Tyutin, Scott Hartnell and Cam Atkinson scored for the Jackets and Sergei Bobrobsky made 41 saves for the 3-1 Columbus road win.
“It was one of those games we should use as an example and move forward,” Tyutin said. “That’s the way we were built to play: Keep it simple.”
Given the parade of injuries the Jackets have endured this season it was good win.
“I thought it was a great overall effort,” Atkinson said. “From the blue line and [Sergei Bobrobsky] out to the forwards … I thought that, for the most part, we just getting pucks deep and generated opportunities off of that.”
Jimmy Howard took the loss on 23 saves,
“In this game, it was tough to get momentum. Too many times, we were one-and-done. They were really tight in front of the goalie,” Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “We’ve got to bear down when we get good chances. If we do that we have a chance to win.”
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