In Ottawa, Brady Tkachuk scored with 90 seconds left in extra time to send the Senators to a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday.
“Our mentality in overtime to win this and to not sit back,” Senators head coach D.J. Smith said. “And certainly, we did that. You can see some of the young kids start to get confidence, start to be a lot better with the puck. A year ago in overtime, we would just be hanging on and I just thought we were attacking. We were dangerous.”
Matt Murray got the win on 30 saves,
“I think Murray was our MVP tonight,” Tkachuk said. “He’s been our MVP for most of the year, or all the year, and now we’ve just got to help him out during those tough times as a group. He’s been awesome for us.”
Corey Perry made the extra session necessary when the tied the game at 2-2 with just over five minutes left in regulation.
“We were just sloppy in overtime,” Montreal head coach Claude Julien said. “We got tired at the end. That goal that they scored, we had two guys that had been out there for a long time and we didn’t handle it well and we end up giving the opportunity to win the hockey game.”
Nick Suzuki also scored for the Habs.
“I think we’re pretty much all up in our own heads right now,” Suzuki said. “I think just overthinking it, playing not to lose, and that’s never a good thing to do.”
Josh Norris and Drake Batherson replied to Suzuki’s opening goal with two for the Senators and a 2-1 lead.
“The third period was a lot of fun,” Norris said. “I thought we had a lot of really good chances, had a lot of (offensive) zone time and were breaking the puck out really well, had some really good regroups in the neutral zone. Just did a lot of good things.”
Jake Allen took the loss on 36 saves.
“We should’ve simplified our game,” Julien said. “Some of the breakaways we gave, we’re just playing high risk hockey at times. We’re making some decisions that are high risk and it ends up costing us. So we need to settle down here and play a more stable type of game.”
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