After three good performances, the Canadian came out flat for a second time in eight days against one of the worst teams in the NHL.
Tim Stützle had a goal and two assists, while Brady Tkachuk provided a goal and an assist and the Ottawa Senators beat the Montreal club 6-2 on Thursday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.
The Canadian had recently performed well against some of the NHL’s best offenses — the Edmonton Oilers, Colorado Avalanche and New Jersey Devils. He also had the opportunity to win a third game in a row for the first time this season.
However, Martin St-Louis’ squad made too many errors in their transition game and suffered an embarrassing setback that was more reminiscent of the poor performance against the San Jose Sharks — a 3-2 defeat at the Bell Center on Thursday. last.
“I think we were less precise in applying the details of our game than we have been recently,” said captain Nick Suzuki. Of course, our opponent has talented players who know how to take advantage of their rivals’ mistakes. Then we found ourselves faced with a simply insurmountable deficit. »
The Senators had Wednesday off and are in the midst of a four-game homestand. For his part, the Canadian was in New Jersey and arrived in Ottawa during the night.
“It’s certain that we lacked energy and when you’re tired, you’re less alert,” recalled St-Louis after talking about his players’ problems executing plays.
Cole Caufield and Michael Pezzetta lit the red light for the Canadian (19-19-7), who now has a record of 1-8-0 in his second game in as many days. Cayden Primeau had a difficult evening despite a 31 save performance.
Parker Kelly had a goal and an assist, while Rourke Chartier, Vladimir Tarasenko and Mathieu Joseph also scored for the Senators (16-24-0), who won for the second time in their last eight games (2-6 -0). Artem Zub had two assists and Joonas Korpisalo stopped 21 shots.
The Senators have won the last seven meetings between the two teams.
“It’s not like we started the game thinking it would be easy,” insisted Canadian defenseman Mike Matheson. It’s a team that plays well against us and who hadn’t played for a few days. They had energy and we talked about it before the match. »
The Canadian will end his three-game trip by visiting the Boston Bruins on Saturday.
An evening to forget
Korpisalo was the first to report, frustrating Matheson in a two-on-one attack.
Tkachuk then gave the Senators the lead at 8:40. Earlier in the sequence, the Senators captain had applied a severe check to Matheson. Sean Monahan then hit the post at the other end of the ice. Tkachuk finally surprised Primeau on the shield side.
The Senators came back at 11:07. Stützle also beat Primeau on the shield side after a two-on-one attack.
The Canadian then had only two shots on goal and the Senators had 13.
The Habs, however, found the back of the net on their third shot on goal, with 6:35 left in the first period. Caufield fired a sharp shot that hit Korpisalo’s glove before falling behind the goal line.
Caufield thus scored a goal in a fourth game in a row.
There were fewer scoring chances in the second period, but that didn’t stop the Senators from increasing their lead.
Chartier scored at 9:51, taking advantage of a poor return conceded by Primeau.
Tarasenko then made it 4-1 with 66 seconds left in the period. He surprised Primeau on the glove side during a three-on-two attack.
Claude Giroux beat Primeau shorthanded with 14.2 seconds remaining in the middle period, but the goal was canceled following a challenge by St-Louis. Officials ruled that Parker Kelly interfered with Primeau’s work on the footage.
It was only a postponement for the Senators, who finally widened the gap to 5-1 after 1:41 of play in the third period. Stützle did all the work after a turnover in the neutral zone. He made fun of David Savard’s withdrawal and left Joseph behind, who outwitted Primeau.
The rest of the meeting was just a formality.
The Canadian replaced Primeau with an additional attacker with more than eight minutes remaining in the game. This only allowed Kelly to score into an empty net at 12:26.
Pezzetta then surprised Korpisalo on the glove side with 4:44 left on the clock.