The three-game sweep of the NHL starts in Ottawa, where the Senators’ Erik Karlsson scored two goals and Craig Anderson made 25 saves for 3-0 shutout of the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets.
“Over the course of 60 minutes, I think we were the better team, even though Columbus played well and made it hard on us,” said Karlsson, who has five goals and three 
assists in the past five games. “We did what we had to do to win the game. We got a few lucky bounces, and that’s what you need sometimes. I think everybody contributed, and it started with the third and fourth line. They did the hard work. They got us going.”
The game was described as physical.
“The fourth line … after a couple of our D got banged up, they took it upon themselves to give an emotional lift with some physicality, and we responded,” Senators coach Dave Cameron said.
“I like old-time hockey. I like physicality, and I love it every shift.”
For Anderson, it was his first shutout of the campaign.
“We played outstanding tonight,” Anderson said. “From start to finish, we made them earn everything they got, made it hard on the other team to score goals. Tonight was one of those nights we were going to give up less than them, as opposed to trying to outscore them, which was nice.”
It was a stumble for the Jackets who appeared to be getting their game together of late.
“They deserved to win the game. I’m not going to disrespect them,” Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. “We did not play well enough. Our offensive guys did not play well enough. The game was up for grabs. You could tell. I really liked our start, but that game you could just tell it’s who was going to take it. They did. We didn’t. We lose
In Montreal, the visiting Arizona Coyotes got goals from Martin Hanzal, Shane Doan and Oliver Ekman-Larsson as they escaped with a 3-2 win over the Canadiens.
“Our team game was much better [Thursday] than it was last game,” Arizona coach Dave Tippett said, referring to a 5-2 loss to the New York Islanders on Monday. “We spent a couple of days talking about it so I’m glad the players responded and they played a pretty solid game. We made it a little hard on ourselves at the end there.
“I thought the second period, we had some great chances, we could have pushed it to 4-0, and then we had a turnover that led to a goal against late in the second and then took a penalty to give some momentum, but I thought we hung in there in the third. I give our guys credit.”
Mike Smith made 31 saves for the Coyotes who improved to 10-8-1.
Max Pacioretty and Dale Weise closed the three-goal deficit to 3-2 but that was all the Habs were able to muster.
Mike Condon made 17 saves in the loss for Montreal in backup duties to the injured Carey Price.
“I’m used to playing many games in a row in the minors, and it’s no different up here,” said Condon, who is 7-2-2, including five wins in nine starts since Carey Price was sidelined by a lower-body injury. “It’s just if you make a mistake, guys bury it. So the second goal was my fault, and it’s that one goal that comes back to haunt you.”
In St Louis, the Blues needed extra time and a skills competition to get a 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres Thursday.
Alexander Steen‘s marker in the skills competition proved the winner.
“It was special teams and the goaltender that won the game for us,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. “Penalty-killing was outstanding. Power play, we scored early in the five-minute power play and then we kind of logged around the rest and then had a great power play goal in the second period. The guys that killed penalties, especially those guys that were out there on the 5-on-3, did an outstanding job.”
Jake Allen picked up the win on the strength of 32 saves.
“I don’t see my specific stops. I see it as a whole unit killing the penalty,” Allen said. “I’m just part of the group that kills the penalty. Our job’s to weather that storm for as long as need be and get back to 5-on-5, and we did that.
“Just get over there [on O’Reilly], be as big as you can and got bat on it.”
The Sabres fell to 8-9-2 with the loss.
“We had a plus-2 on the 5-on-5 tonight,” Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said. “I thought the special teams pretty much dictated the whole game right from the beginning with the major penalty that we took. We obviously had the two 5-on-3 situations at the end of the second and the third period, but 5-on-5, we’re playing a tough team, a hard place to play, a hard place to get points and I thought we battled them pretty good.”
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