Habs’ OT victory has Sens on brink
> CANADIENS 2
> SENATORS 1
(OT) HABS LEAD SERIES 3-0
OTTAWA— Dale Weise forced overtime with a late goal and then scored 8:46 into overtime to lift the Montreal Canadiens to a 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Sunday night.
Montreal leads the best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series 3-0 and can finish it off in Game 4 Wednesday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Weise skated in on the left side and beat Craig Anderson with a shot inside the near post. The 20,500 fans screamed for a whistle on what appeared to be a hand pass by Brandon Prust on the play, but the goal stood.
“Any time you score a winner like that it’s pretty special,” said Weise. “I got pretty excited about that first one, too, that was a big goal. I just felt like we were pressuring and pressuring and we needed a good bounce like that to put the puck in the net. And thank goodness it was me.”
Weise had tied it with 5:47 left in regulation time for Montreal, which outshot the Senators 49-34.
Clarke MacArthur scored in the first for Ottawa, which has struck first in all three games of the series.
The Senators opted to go with veteran Anderson in goal over Andrew Hammond, whose stellar play led their late push for a playoff spot. Anderson was sharp, stopping 47 shots.
“He played well tonight, he played great,” said Weise. “He’s a veteran, he’s outstanding, I thought he kept them in the game.”
Ottawa came out hitting every Canadien that moved, led by their captain Erik Karlsson and tough guy Chris Neil, who made his series debut. They took a 10-4 lead in shots and a 1-0 lead in the game.
The Sens scored when Montreal defenceman P.K. Subban went for a hit on Karlsson and Mark Stone was able to slip the puck in front of the Montreal net, where two Ottawa players were parked. MacArthur put a deke on Carey Price and slid in is second of the series at11:28 of the first period.
“I think we played solid throughout the game and they did a good job and they made it hard on us,” said Karlsson.
The Canadiens turned it around in the second, outshooting Ottawa 19-6, but couldn’t get one past Anderson.
It took until their 36th shot, at 14:13 of the third, for Weise to tie the game as he slapped one into an open side off a pass from Prust with a crowd of players jostling near the net.
“There are guys that have made careers on that, just finding a way to get it done and listen, he’s found a way,” Subban said about Weise.
“It was a close one,” said Anderson. “It’s frustrating. The guys battled so hard, played so well and to come up short is frustrating.” Montreal defenceman Nathan Beaulieu took a shattering, open-ice hit from Karlsson, with contact to the head, in the second frame. He finished the period, but did not return for the third.