OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Shane Pinto, Drake Batherson and Brady Tkachuk scored in Ottawa's three-goal second period and the Senators held on to beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 Wednesday night for their third straight win.
Alex DeBrincat had three assists as Ottawa won for the seventh time in 10 games (7-2-1). Cam Talbot stopped 23 shots made 23 saves to win his third straight start.
Kirby Dach and Christian Dvorak scored in the third period for Montreal, which has lost five of its last eight (3-4-1), but were unable to score the equalizer. Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots.
The Canadiens finally solved Talbot at 8:05 of the third as Dach glided into the slot and converted a pass from Jake Evans for his fifth to send the partisan Montreal crowd into a frenzy.
Dvorak made it a one-goal game when he beat Talbot on a delayed penalty call with 6:48 remaining for his sixth.
That was as close as the Canadiens could get.
Montembeault denied Pinto on a point-blank shot early in the second. However, moments later, the Senators forward took a great feed from Nikita Zaitsev and and scored off the post for his 10th at 1:28.
Batherson made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 5:41 when he scored through his own legs in front of the net for his eighth.
Tkachuk added Ottawa’s second power-play goal when he tipped DeBrincat's pass past Montembeault at 8:02 for his 13th.
DeBrincat extended his point streak to seven games (three goals, seven assists). Batherson pushed his point streak to six games (three goals, five assists).
DEBUT
Senators C Jacob Lucchini made his NHL debut Wednesday night. The 27-year-old got the experience of taking a rookie lap during warmups.
SIDELINED
The Senators will be without Tim Stutzle for at least a week as he recovers from a shoulder contusion after being hit by the Ducks’ Brett Leason on Monday night. ... Tyler Motte is expected to miss at least a week with an undisclosed upper body injury after going down hard in the same game. ... Jonathan Drouin returned to Montreal’s lineup after missing 13 games with an upper-body injury.
UP NEXT
Canadiens: Host Anaheim on Thursday night to open a two-game homestand.
Senators: At Detroit on Saturday to open a three-game trip.
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