Ottawa Senators Defeat Montreal Canadiens 4-2 At Home
Hard to say what fans expected of this game, after losing both Robin Lehner and Clarke Macarthur against the Hurricanes this week, but the Ottawa Senators took to the ice this Wednesday determined to find out anyways.
Andrew Hammond made his first career start, and emergency call-up Chris Driedger of the ECHL’s Evansville Icemen was there to back him up.
I know I didn’t have high expectations when our tandem in net was a mediocre AHL goalie, and an even more mediocre ECHL goalie, but I think most fans would agree that Hammond was solid, and was certainly a reason the Senators were relevant in this game.
Game Recap
The first period featured some pretty high-flying hockey as both teams exchanged plenty of scoring chances in the opening frame. Somewhat surprisingly, Senators’ goaltender Andrew Hammond was solid, stopping 13 shots – although he was saved by a few posts and some general puck luck.
0-0 after 1
Montreal came out the hungrier team to start the second, out-shooting Ottawa by a 9-2 margin before the period was five minutes old. Mark Borrowiecki would go off at 5:57 for holding, and although things would look a little dicey, Hammond again would come up with some big saves to keep the game scoreless.
Ottawa would eventually open the scoring, with Milan Michalek poking the puck through Dustin Tokarski‘s pads just moments after a penalty to P.K. Subban had expired.
Unfortunately, exactly 10 seconds later, Canadiens’ sniper Max Pacioretty would catch Cody Ceci sleeping and snap a wrister past Hammond to even the score at 1-1.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau would be the beneficiary of a nifty slap-pass from Erik Karlsson and was able to deflect it past Tokarski after some nice sustained zone pressure from the Sens.
The period would finish with the Canadiens holding a 30-29 shot advantage.
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2-1 Ottawa after 2
The third period began slow, with both teams registering only about 5 shots each up to the ten minute mark of the frame.
At 9:27, Mark Stone would battle in the crease with Tokarski and Greg Pateryn and ended hitting the puck in with the toe of his skate. The play would go under review, but it would be determined that there was no kicking motion and that the goal was simply a result of some good aggressive play at the net by Stone.
Around 5 minutes after that, Nathan Beaulieu would deflect a point shot past Hammond for his first ever NHL goal to get the Habs back to within one.
Montreal would pull Tokarski with about two minutes left, and almost immediately after Mark Stone would take the puck away and get it to Kyle Turris, who would fire it from centre ice and in to the empty net to seal this one for Ottawa.
Final score 4-2
Notes & Observations
- Paaaaaaaaaageau, Pageau, Pageau, Pageauuuuuuuuu, scores in his first game back up. Why did we demote him again?
- Montreal’s blue-line got beaten up in this one. After tonight they’ll likely be looking for some insurance on the trade market.
- Gotta give a hand to Andrew Hammond for his play tonight. I had some pretty low expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised by his solid play and timely saves.