In Ottawa, the Senators hit for three goals in the middle frame on Wednesday night, twice off the power, en route to a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
Alex DeBrincat assisted on all three goals.
“It takes some time to get used to who you’re playing with and where they’re going to be on the ice,” said DeBrincat. “I think we’re starting to figure that out a lot better now. Definitely that comfort level is much higher than it was earlier in the season.”
Cam Talbot made 23 saves in the Senators win.
Ottawa improved to 13-14-2.
“We’re fighting to get back in the pack,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “A real gutsy effort. We’ve got some guys down the middle out (Tim Stutzle, Josh Norris), and I thought we got some good efforts.”
After a scoreless first period, Ottawa broke the game open with the three strikes in the second period.
Shane Pinto scored for Ottawa to get the offense geared up in the second period, his goal came 88 seconds into the frame.
Ottawa then struck twice on the power play.
“Obviously, they had a good push at the end, but we stayed with it,” Pinto said. “Talbot made some good saves, and we just stayed calm as much as we could. I know it got a little hectic there, but we got two points, so that’s all that matters.”
Drake Batherson pushed the lead to 2-0 at 5:41.
Brady Tkachuk added the second power play strike for a 3-1 lead in the ninth minute of the period.
Ottawa is 7-2-1 in their last 10 matches.
“I feel like we have so many different looks, it’s hard to defend all of them,” DeBrincat said of the power play. “If we keep moving it around quickly like that, keep putting pucks on net and getting retrievals, I think we’re going to score a lot.”
Dach scored at 8:05 of the third to breath life into the Montreal game.
Dvorak’s goal came at 13:12, but that was as close as the Habs could get.
Montreal replied to the outburst with a pair of markers in the third period
Kirby Dach and Christian Dvorak scored for the Habs to get them within 3-2 with just under seven minutes left in regulation.
“We have to have better discipline,” Dvorak said. “They have a really good power play, and we knew that beforehand. We just took too many penalties, and they took advantage (5-for-7 on penalty kill). We were the better team 5-on-5, so we’ve just got to make sure we stay out of the box.”
The Canadiens dropped to 14-13-2.
“We liked our first period, no doubt,” Dvorak said. “Second period, we were just on the penalty kill the whole period, so it’s tough when you’re doing that.”
Sam Montembeault made 28 saves in the Montreal loss.
“Our discipline kind of slipped away in the second,” said Dach. “I felt like 5-on-5 we were playing our game, we had control. … I obviously take ownership with the penalties I took tonight. The timing of them wasn’t the best.”
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