The Ottawa Senators issued another reminder on Saturday night that Rome wasn’t built in a day.
In their home opener on Thursday night, it sure seemed like it was. They put up an impressive 3-1 victory over the defending champion Florida Panthers. But in Montreal against the Canadiens, the last-place team in the Atlantic Division three years running, it became clear that plenty of work remains.
The Habs got two goals from Cole Caufield to defeat the Senators, 4-1. Sam Montembault made 24 saves for the win. Tim Stutzle had the lone goal for Ottawa, his third in two games. Linus Ullmark allowed four goals on 25 shots.
The Senators started the night well, with some good pace and forechecking, but that only lasted for a few minutes on a night filled with defensive glitches.
The Canadiens drew momentum from special teams, killing off an early penalty, then going to work on their own power play. Tyler Kleven left the front of Ottawa’s net to chase below the goal line just as Emil Heineman charged to the slot, completely unmarked, and scored his first NHL goal to make it 1-0.
Less than five minutes later, Cole Caufield had a sliver of space over Linus Ullmark’s shoulder on the short side. Somehow, he found it to make it 2-0.
That marked two poor periods in a row for the Sens, who just held on in the third in the win over Florida. It also marked a fourth straight period of shutout hockey for Sam Montembault, who entered the game with a career .899 save percentage.
In the second, neither team generated a lot. The Habs attacked less, looking like they were challenging Ottawa to try and score three tonight on a goalie who’s been perfect this season through five periods of hockey.
In the third period, Sens captain Brady Tkachuk took an early slashing penalty, which was followed by a curious penalty shot call on Jake Sanderson. He tripped up Mike Matheson, and it was certainly a penalty, but Matheson was nowhere near being in the clear. In fact, he appeared to be moving laterally.
Matheson failed on the penalty shot attempt, but Montreal stayed on the power play. When Tkachuk came out of the box, the Sens stayed hemmed in, and after a poor clearing attempt by Nick Jensen, Alex Newhook got a clean lane to the net and buried a shot past Ullmark to make it 3-0.
Tim Stutzle got one back with his third goal in two games to cut Montreal’s lead to 3-1. But the Habs quickly restored the lead. With Nick Jensen pushing forward in Montreal’s zone, Thomas Chabot was the only guy back. And he decided to drift forward as well. That left Nick Suzuki with an easy breakaway, and Cole Caufield cashed in on the rebound to put the game out of reach.
The Senators pulled their goalie with just under 4 minutes to play to no avail.
The Senators fall to 1-1 on the young season and return home to give thanks. They will face the Los Angeles Kings on Monday at 1 p.m.
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