Round 1, Game 1 Recap: Ottawa Senators @ Montreal Canadiens – Anderson, Sens Edge Habs 4-2

There was a lot of hype to this game and the game had pretty much everything you can ask for; good goaltending, a controversial hit (See Jared’s article), a questionable goal and great saves. All in all a classic great playoff game in a great atmosphere! You could really see around the second period that these two teams were started to get a slight but noticeable hatred for each other. All this creates is a great recipe for a great playoff match-up!

May 2, 2013; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Ottawa Senators goalie

(41) makes a save on Montreal Canadiens right wing

(17) shot during the second period in game one of the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs at the Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports

GAME RECAP

The game started with both teams kind of feeling each other out, trying to figure how they were going to play this game. Craig Anderson showed everyone early that he was ready for this game and made some key saves, the first of many. How great was it to see Erik Karlsson open up the scoring for the Sens? He rushed up the ice like we’ve seen him do countless times this season and create the scoring chance himself pretty much shooting towards Kyle Turris who then redirected it to Karlsson in which it was tipped passed Carey Price. In other words King K pretty much did everything to give the Sens the one goal lead.

Montreal came out firing, quite literally shooting 27 times at Anderson. They would eventually score a little bit after the mid way part of the period after P.K. Subban passed the puck to Rene Bourque who then backhanded it passed the Sens goal keeper. Literally second later the Eric Gryba hit happened (See link to story above) and the Habs received a lengthy 5 minute power play. The home team capitalized once to take the 2-1 lead on Brendan Gallagher‘s goal on a nice passing play from Thomas Plekkanec and Alex Galchenyuk.

After the second period had ended it really looked as if the Habs had the momentum  going into the 3rd after that power play goal. But the Sens came out fighting into the final period desperate to try and tie the game. The Sens actually out-shot the Habs in this period and came out hitting a little much which threw off the Habs a little bit; at least enough to mount a comeback. To begin the comeback and tie the game, Jakob Silfverberg showed off his great release on a pass from Mika Zibanejad and he ripped it passed Carey Price to tie it up at 2. A couple minutes later it was the Ottawa born, Marc Methot who gave the Sens the 3-2 lead with a shot from the point that found its way into the back of the net. He was credited with the game winner. To get some insurance Guillaume Latendresse would eventually score on a goal that was reviewed but deemed good after it was overlooked. Latendresse scores his first of the playoffs against his former club to make it 4-2, which would end up being the final.

SENSHOT THOUGHTS

• Not hard to find players who had great games. I thought Marc Methot showed why Bryan Murray has been trying to trade for him for so long. What a solid game from the Ottawa native. Jakob Silfverberg, the Swedish Elite league playoff MVP, put in a MVP like game tonight finishing with a goal and an assist. Thought Erik Karlsson also had a good game but isn’t that an occurance on pretty much every game? I think it’s kind of expected now.
• Craig Anderson. He deserves a point in this section on his own. He continues to show he excels with a lot of shots on net., finishing the game with 48 saves. He was a MAJOR part of the Sens win. All he did was make big save after big save, keeping the Sens in the game all night long.
• If the Sens can keep playing like they did tonight and like they did in the 3rd period, they will succeed in this series. I thought they played a very good road game in what continues to be a trend lately as the Sens have now won 5 straight games on the road.

SENSHOT 3 STARS

1. Craig Anderson – 48 saves on 50 shots
2. Brendan Gallagher – 1 goal, 8 shots
3. Marc Methot – 1 goal, 1 assist, plus 3, 22:21 minutes played

UP NEXT

The Sens will be right back at it tomorrow night as they will play game 2 of round one. Should be a pretty similar game, as we wait and see what happens with the Eric Gryba situation. Game is same time, same place, same channel!