Ottawa hits for three in third to down Canadiens, 5-2

In Montreal, the Ottawa Senators broke open a tight, 2-2, affair with the Canadiens on Saturday night when they scored three third period goals to take a 5-2 win.

Austin Watson snapped the 2-2 tie at 4:31 of the third, and Drake Batherson scored to make it 4-2 to the Senators.

“We gave up 2-on-1s that really hurt us tonight,” Canadiens defenseman David Savard said. “I think overall we were playing good and the first two periods were a textbook of how we wanted to play. Obviously there were a couple of mistakes, they scored, but I think we were creating a lot. We weren’t giving much, and in the third a couple of mistakes and they got the lead, and after that they were playing well with the lead.”

Mads Sogaard made 30 saves in the Ottawa win.

The Senators improved to 28-26-4.

The Habs have lost all four matches with the Senators this season.

“Obviously that’s frustrating,” Montreal forward Michael Pezzetta said. “I mean, it’s a team that I think we have a lot of bad blood between each other and, yeah, obviously not happy right now, and not a good feeling.”

Julien Gautier finished the outburst at 11:57 for the 5-2 final.

“Everybody’s been great to me so it’s fun,” Gauthier said. “The adaptation has been really smooth and I’m just happy to be here.”

Derick Brassard staked the Sens to a 1-0 lead in the first period.

“The two points are huge if we’re trying to climb in the standings,” Brassard said. “And like our top players, they’ve been pretty good for us for a while here and it was nice for the bottom six that you chipped in here for the team. And it’s always nice when you’re helping the team to win some games.”

Mike Matheson and Nick Suzuki scored for the Canadiens in the middle frame to give them a 2-1 lead.

Ottawa’s Shane Pinto scored at 13:51 to tie the game, 2-2, headed to the third period.

“We didn’t take care of the puck at all,” Senators coach D.J. Smith said. “Clearly we were rattled there for a six-minute span where we were just kind of running around, turning pucks over, lost focus really. A game like this, we knew we had to have it and sometimes you squeeze and it’s not going your way.

“But good on the guys, they got themselves together after the second TV timeout, played much better in the second half.”