OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Paul Byron scored twice and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators 5-2 on Thursday night to sweep the home-and home series.
Jeff Petry, Brendan Gallagher and Andrew Shaw also scored, and Carey Price stopped 19 shots.
"We just started skating," Byron said. "They had a couple injuries so they were short-handed down the middle and we knew if we kept skating and kept pushing it was going to make it harder on them."
The Canadiens also beat the Senators 5-2 on Tuesday night in Montreal.
"Both games the game slips away in that second period because of bad puck management," Senators coach Guy Boucher said. "It doesn't matter who you play against. If you don't manage the puck well it's going to haunt you."
Mark Stone and Colin White scored for the Senators, and Craig Anderson stopped 38 shots. Ottawa's Matt Duchene (lower body) and Bobby Ryan (upper body) left the game with injuries.
"It's unfortunate, but it happens to a lot of teams," Ottawa's Cody Ceci said. "A lot of guys had to play a lot of minutes tonight, but can't use that as an excuse."
An unlucky bounce early in the third gave Montreal a 4-2 lead on Gallagher's goal, and Byron added an empty-net goal for his second of the night.
"We played a good road game against a team that's been successful at home," Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. "It was about being ready to play hard and I thought we did that for the most part."
A couple defensive breakdowns by the Senators allowed the Canadiens to take a 3-2 lead into the third period.
After Tom Pyatt failed to clear the puck, the Canadiens gained control with Philip Danault making a cross-ice pass to Byron.
Shaw made it 3-1 with his 100th career goal, beating Anderson from in close. But the Senators cut the lead back to one with a power-play goal late in the period. Price made a great save on Ryan Dzingel, but White was right there for the rebound for his eighth of the season.
Stone opened the scoring for the Senators midway through the period when he beat Price with a quick wrist shot.
The Canadiens tied it 20 seconds later when Petry took a pass at the blue line and beat Anderson with a long wrist shot.
NOTES: Ottawa remains without D Mark Borowiecki. He's recovering from an upper-body injury. ... Montreal improved to 14-10-5, and Ottawa dropped to 12-14-3.
UP NEXT
Canadiens: At Chicago on Sunday night.
Senators: Host Pittsburgh on Saturday night.
