MONTREAL – Jakob Silfverberg and Marc Methot scored early in the third period as the Ottawa Senators rode brilliant goaltending from Craig Anderson to a 4-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night.
The win gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarter-final series, with Game 2 set for Friday night at the Bell Centre.
Erik Karlsson and Guillaume Latendresse also scored for the Senators, who were outshot 50-31 but had Anderson easily win the goaltending dual with Carey Price, who was beaten twice through the five-hole.
Rene Bourque and Brendan Gallagher replied for Montreal, which set a team record for shots in a regulation-time playoff game.
The first playoff series between the Northeast Division rivals didn’t take long to get nasty.
Montreal centre Lars Eller was wheeled off on a stretcher bleeding heavily from the nose and was taken to hospital with what the team said was head and facial injuries after he was caught with a shoulder to the face on an open-ice hit from Senators’ defenceman Eric Gryba.
Gryba was given an interference major and a game misconduct and could face further discipline from the NHL.
Anderson was sharp as the Senators weathered a fierce Canadiens push in the first 10 minutes before Karlsson put on a show for the opening goal at 17:25.
The 2012 Norris Trophy winner skated through the neutral zone into Montreal territory and worked a give and go with Kyle Turris, redirecting the return pass along the ice between Price’s pads.
Watch what the players and coach had to say before the game:
Montreal fired 27 shots in the middle period, a team playoff record, and tied the game when Bourque came out from behind the net and beat Anderson with a backhand under the crossbar on Montreal’s 34th shot of the game at 13:09.
The after the Gryba hit and Ottawa down a man, Gallagher banged in a Tomas Plekanec pass at 14:08 to put Montreal in the lead.
But the Senators weathered the rest of the penalty and trailed just 2-1 after two.
Silfverberg tied the game with a shot from the top of the right circle than went straight through Price’s pads 3:27 into the third.
Less than two minutes later, Methot swept a shot from the point through traffic that caught the top corner for the game-winner.
Latendresse, a former Canadiens player who was booed by the Bell Centre crowd, went to the net and saw Silfverberg’s shot go in off his body at 13:55 to ice the victory.
Notes: The Canadiens are now 50-28-2 all-time in playoff Game 1s. Ottawa is 11-11. … Montreal sat out Jeff Halpern, Colby Armstrong, Davis Drewiske and Yannick Weber. … Peter Regin, Matt Kassian, Patrick Wiercioch and Andre Benoit were among Ottawa’s scratches. … The game was the first between Canadian teams in the playoffs since 2004.
Comments