Habs spoil Anderson’s party
Senators fall to Canadiens for third time in eight days in tight Atlantic Division race
His 500th career game was supposed to be a night to remember for Craig Anderson.
Unfortunately, it was one Ottawa’s top goaltender and his teammates would just as soon forget.
On Anderson’s milestone night, the Senators also had a chance to move into first place in the Atlantic Division, but instead Ottawa dropped a 3-1 decision to the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
Facing the Habs for the third time in eight days, the Senators were trying to atone for back-to-back losses last weekend against Montreal. But only forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau was able to beat Canadiens goaltender Carey Price as Ottawa saw its two-game winning streak come to an end.
With the win, the Canadiens (4224-9) boosted their point total to 93, three better than the Senators (4125-8), who hold a game in hand.
The Habs offence came from the defence as blueliner Andrei Markov scored twice while Shea Weber also fired one by Anderson, who was in the net for all three of these losses to Montreal. He wasn’t at his best and it didn’t help the team in front of him wasn’t in top form, either.
Now, with eight games left, it’s time to take the focus off the Senators trying to catch Montreal for a division crown.
Instead, they need to make sure they get a playoff spot locked up, because there have been times lately when Ottawa has struggled with consistency.
It’s no wonder that coach Guy Boucher was trying not to dwell on the way his team played here last weekend.
“We didn’t talk about last weekend,” said Boucher after the morning skate.
“For us, it’s always about day by-day. Today is about today and how we want to be and how we got better at a few things. We just want to put that on the ice. It’s not about the opponent for us.”
Down by two goals in the third, period the Senators couldn’t take advantage of two power play opportunities they were given. They didn’t do much with the first one and then Alex Burrows hit the post behind Price while in alone with just over nine minutes remaining — a goal that would have made a difference.
Attempting to bounce back from an ugly 4-1 loss to the Habs here last Sunday night, the Senators didn’t look very good at all in the second period and were trailing 3-1.
They didn’t get on the board until falling behind 3-0 despite outshooting the Habs 22-18 through 40 minutes.
It was Pageau, with his seventh career goal in 14 games against the Habs, who got the Senators on the board. After some good work by Mike Hoffman in the Montreal zone, Pageau’s shot from the left circle beat Price on the glove side with 7:49 left in the second. Yup, they needed that one badly. Markov’s second of the night was also the Habs’ second in this game on the power play. He fired a blast from the slot that Anderson never moved on at 5:55 of the second to move the Habs ahead by a 3-0 count. The Senators were likely in a state of shock they were in this position.
After taking a pass from Max Pacioretty, Markov had a clear lane and fired a blast from the top of the circle by Anderson on the stick side only 1:13 into the second period to give the Habs a 2-0 lead. It didn’t help Anderson at all that Markov had as much time as he wanted to shoot the puck.
Unlike last Sunday’s loss to the Habs here, the Senators got off to the kind of start they wanted.
They had good energy, they outshot the Habs by an 11-6 count, but were trailing where it mattered the most with Montreal ahead 1-0 on the scoreboard after the first period.
Price had to be strong because the Senators dominated in every area but, just for good measure, Anderson did stop Pacioretty on a breakaway with about four minutes left.
With Erik Karlsson off for holding, Weber fired a blast from the point that Anderson didn’t appear to see as it beat him high to the stick side to give the Habs a 1-0 lead.
That’s the 41st time this season that the Senators have given up the opening goal.