GARRIOCH: Brady Tkachuk scores winner as Senators knock off Habs
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Brady Tkachuk scored the winner in the dying minutes as the Ottawa Senators swept their two-game series against the Montreal Canadiens with a dramatic 5-4 victory Tuesday night.
Ottawa Senators forward Tim Stutzle (18) celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal against the Montreal Canadiens during the first period at the Bell Centre. Stutzle had a four-point night for the Senators. Photo by Eric Bolte /USA TODAY Sports Article content Senators 5, Canadiens 4 Advertisement 2
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The captain came through in the crunch.
Brady Tkachuk scored the winner in the dying minutes as the Ottawa Senators swept their two-game series against the Montreal Canadiens with a dramatic 5-4 victory Tuesday night at the Bell Centre and extended the club’s winning streak to four games.
Tkachuk fired home the winner with 1:18 remaining in the third period as the Senators moved their record to one game above .500 as they head into a 10-day break in the schedule. Tim Stutzle led the charge with two goals and four points while Claude Giroux and Alex DeBrincat also chipped in with goals.
“It’s always nice to beat them,” Tkachuk told TSN after the game. “It was one of those weird games, but we found a way and I think that just speaks volumes about our team.”
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Ottawa Senators forward Brady Tkachuk (7) and Montreal Canadiens defenceman Arber Xhekaj (72) exchange blows at the end of the second period at the Bell Centre. Photo by Eric Bolte /USA TODAY Sports
The club didn’t make this night easy on itself. Only 2:02 after Stutzle’s second of the night on the power play gave the Senators a 4-3 advantage, Rafael Harvey-Pinard tied it up 4-4 with his second goal of the game. Earlier, he had tied it up 3-3 at 11:02.
Stutzle was huge in this game and Montreal fans saluted the club after Tkachuk scored the winner.
“It’s a lot of fun playing right now,” Stutzle told reporters in Montreal. “Getting a couple of middle fingers from fans, we all know (Tkachuk) loves it. That was awesome. Four wins before the break means we can go into the break positive and happy.”
The Senators started this series with a 5-0 win over the Habs on Saturday at the Canadian Tire Centre. The players and staff will now head their separate ways for a lengthy break. The Senators won’t play again until they host the Edmonton Oilers on Feb. 11 at 12:30 p.m.
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It’s the third time this season the Senators have won four straight and this will be a good boost of confidence because heading into this one the club was hopeful it could finish off strong.
Montreal Canadiens forward Kirby Dach (77) scores a goal against Ottawa Senators goaltender Anton Forsberg during the first period at the Bell Centre. Photo by Eric Bolte /USA TODAY Sports
Coach D.J. Smith didn’t want anybody looking ahead to the break.
“We found a way to win. We had a lot of good efforts. Our power play gets us a couple and that’s the difference,” Smith said. “I just thought in the third period we weren’t skating. Give them credit because they came hard, but we just sat on our heels way too much.
“But, in saying that, when we needed to score, we scored.”
The Senators are now only six points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the final wildcard spot in the East heading into the break. The goal this season is to play meaningful games in March, and for that to happen it’s paramount for the Senators to take care of teams like the Habs.
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The only choice for Smith was to go back to Anton Forsberg, but he wasn’t at his best in this one, but Montreal’s Jake Allen wasn’t great, either.
Forsberg, who made 28 stops for his second shutout of the season against the Habs on Saturday, made his third straight start with Cam Talbot sidelined. Talbot likely won’t be ready to play until late in February after suffering what’s believed to be a groin injury last week.
The Senators were only up 3-2 after the second, but the gap should have been larger and Ottawa deserved to be in control. Allen came up with some big stops, but the Senators allowed the Habs to have five power plays in the first 40 minutes.
Montreal Canadiens forward Nick Suzuki (14) makes a pass despite being tripped during the first period against the Ottawa Senators at the Bell Centre. Photo by Eric Bolte /USA TODAY Sports
Former Senators winger Mike Hoffman made the third period interesting by scoring with the man advantage with five seconds left in the the second. He fired a blast that beat Forsberg on the stick side with a one-timer on a pass from Mike Matheson.
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DeBrincat’s 17th of the season on the power play extended the club’s lead back to two goals. He took a pass through the seam from Stutzle and one-timed it by Allen high on the stick side. It was a blast by DeBrincat that Allen had no chance to stop.
That was the club’s fourth power-play goal in four straight games.
“It’s been working for us lately,” DeBrincat told TSN after the second.
The Senators completely dominated the Habs in the first, but were only up 2-1.
The Habs were able to cash in on their second power play of the night at 13:20 to pull to within a goal of the Senators. Nick Suzuki pushed the puck through Forsberg’s pads and Kirby Dach was able to slide the puck across the line.
Montreal fans hadn’t even had a chance to chomp on a hot dog or a take sip of their favourite beverage and already the Senators were up 2-0. Stutzle took a perfect feed from Mathieu Joseph and went bar down stick side on Allen at 3:49 to open up the two-goal advantage.
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Giroux will never forget his 20th goal of the year in his first season with Ottawa. Defenceman Nikita Zaitsev fired a blast that deflected off Giroux’ glove in front to open the scoring at 2:57 of the first, and that was ninth point in his last five games.
“We’re starting to get a little more swagger with the puck and I think that gives us a lot more offensive zone time,” defenceman Thomas Chabot told TSN. “The good thing about that is you’re in the offensive zone, you don’t need to defend.”
BGarrioch@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/sungarrioch
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