Check out the highlights
http://video.thescore.com/watch/ott-3-mtl-2-so
In what looked like a bit of a miss-match, the red hot Ottawa Senators skated into the Bell Centre to take on the struggling Montreal Canadiens. Of course, these type of games can be traps for over-confident teams so the Senators had to be careful. Not to mention, Ottawa’s only regulation loss since December 15th came at the hands of the Habs so focus and concentration were of extreme importance.
So really, it was no surprise when the Habs dominated play early on. Montreal controlled puck possession and were given 3 power-plays by the Senators, only to come up empty-handed. While shots were only 9-7 in favour of the Canadiens, a couple of big saves by Craig Anderson kept the game scoreless.
More of the same in the second. Montreal pressured, Craig Anderson made saves…..fantastic, momentum-killing saves. Anderson clearly still had his mojo from Thursday night’s game against the Rangers and was single-handedly keeping Ottawa in the game. Despite the Habs advantage in play, both teams were 0-5 on the power-play, looking horrible during each attempt. There was even a 6 minute span where neither team recorded a shot.
And just when you thought things couldn’t get worse for the Senators’ power-play, they did. 42 seconds into the third, Tomas Plekanec intercepted a Jason Spezza pass and outraced Erik Karlsson to the Ottawa net, sneaking it by Craig Anderson and making it 1-0 on a shorthanded goal. But that seemed to wake up the Senators and just over 5 minutes later, Kyle Turris tipped Sergei Gonchar’s shot from the point to tie the game up. Then, after Tomas Plekanec took a 4-minute hooking call on Zack Smith, Jason Spezza unleashed a laser past a screened Carey Price and all of a sudden, the Senators were up 2-1.
But the Habs didn’t quit. After pulling their goalie, the Canadiens were able to stop the Senators from clearing their zone. After an inital shot from Chris Campoli, Anderson was able to stop David Desharnais before Max Pacioretty swooped in and put home the third attempt to tie the game with 39 seconds left.
Overtime solved nothing so we were on to the shootout. Nobody scored until the captain Daniel Alfredsson skated down and beat Carey Price through the 5-hole to give the Senators the 3-2 win.
There is no doubt that Craig Anderson was the star of this game. Anderson made 33 saves and improved to 6-0-1 in January. The Senators as a team improved to 11-1-2 since December 16th. They get the Winnipeg Jets next on Monday evening at Scotiabank Place.
Paul MacLean (audio)
https://vr.shapeservices.com/play.php?hash=3211272f6b01f77df9c3e3d438a36d7a97e6ac882cc82b27b
Jason Spezza (audio)
https://vr.shapeservices.com/play.php?hash=13c81013c8b2f8ebb958d05595cc408eb4ad78c9f7207f467
MacLean, Alfredsson, Spezza & Anderson (video)
Slater's Blog 
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