Like Houdini, the Sens work best in a bind as Anderson silences the Bell Centre crowd
Get out those tix for Game 6.
They can be redeemed at the usual Canadian Tire Centre gates Sunday evening for a 6 p.m. start, now that the Senators have tended to business in Game 5, just the latest in a string of fearless performances by the local heroes.
Like the great Houdini, the Senators are at their best when they’re in a bind. In their vigorous stretch run to a playoff spot, the Senators routinely won every “must-win” that came their way. Now, in the first playoff round, the Senators have twice faced elimination and beaten the Canadiens both times, home and away.
The good news: the Senators “only” have two must-wins left in this quarter-final series. Fans will arrive on Sunday with minds open to the possibilities.
In front of a Bell Centre crowd primed for a Friday night celebration, the Senators spoiled the Game 5 party with a 5-1 victory. This was a hounding, checking, sacrifice-your-body, relentless team win.
King Alfie himself, Senators icon Daniel Alfredsson was in the house, met with players and praised the new Sens for “a great, fighting effort.”
When there were small openings for the enemy, No. 41 presided on the scene.
Goaltender Craig Anderson, who sat on the bench for the first two games of this series, improved his career playoff record against the Canadiens to 6-2 along with brilliant sub-stats. As far as Montreal is concerned, there’s a new CBA: Can’t Beat Anderson. Not often, anyway.
“I’m just trying to find the puck,” Anderson said, after finding and stopping 45 of 46 Montreal shots.
An Anderson-Brandon Prust whack and punch episode late in the game was all part of the fun. Senators head coach Dave Cameron termed the Prust stick work on Anderson a “cheap shot,” and a sure sign of the Habs’ frustration.
“When he’s dialed in, he’s a pretty hard goaltender to beat,” Senators defenceman Marc Methot had said, after Anderson shut out the Canadiens 1-0 in Game 4.
It’s certainly established at the Bell Centre, where the early, awkward chants of “An-der-son!” faded to silence as the Senators built their lead and Anderson shut the door. Anderson was again in that zone he entered in his last series against the Habs, in 2013, when he won four of five games and got into the heads of Montreal forwards. Just ask Tomas Plekanec who sailed in alone on a second period shorthanded breakaway and was stoned by the right hand of Anderson, the one that gave Anderson so much trouble after a Jan. 21 injury.
If that wasn’t enough to frustrate the home bench, later in the period Alex Galchenyuk was wide open in front, after a giveaway by Erik Karlsson, and Anderson robbed him, too.
Each stop seemed to make a statement that Anderson was not yielding, so why bother trying?
The Senators knew the Habs would be coming hard from the opening faceoff, determined to finish this series on home ice. There was an early push, but nothing Anderson couldn’t handle. The battles for pucks were fierce and scrums erupted at both ends of the ice.
“It’s a fun time to be playing hockey when temperatures are flaring,” said Senators winger Bobby Ryan, smiling.
The best way to take a crowd out of a game is to score a goal, and the Senators accomplished that from their coldest shooter, Ryan. Here was an omen: if Ryan could score, after failing to in the last 12 games of the regular season and the first four games of this series, then surely it was a sign of something significant unfolding. Ryan simply threw a shot on goal from beyond the faceoff circle and it leaked through Carey Price like a spilled drink. Mika Zibanejad, who was wheeling to the net to screen Carey Price on the play, as he did for the winning goal in Game 4, said something to Ryan after the goal and Ryan tilted his head back and laughed. Prophetic. A laugher this turned out to be.
Ryan’s goal came at 9:29 of the first period, as the Habs early momentum was subsiding. The goal seemed to bewilder the home team and the Senators started to take over the period, cashing in again when defenceman Patrick Wiercioch calmly walked in from the point and flipped a wrist to the top corner, beating Price on the stick side. Wiercioch was full wingspan on the celebration, and smiled all the way to the bench.
In place of the second period collapse of earlier games in the series, the Senators used a secondperiod goal to put the Habs away. A Karlsson slapper from the point beat Price high and air came out of the arena party balloons.
A third-period goal from Montreal D -man Tom Gilbert brought fans back to life but it fell to quiet grumbling as Erik Condra skated in on a gift breakaway and deked out Price to end any question of a dramatic Montreal comeback.
A Mike Hoffman power play goal in the final minute emptied the building, and sparked the party on the fan train home.