Jake Allen made 29 saves for his first victory since November, and Jake Evans recorded a goal and an assist as the Montreal Canadiens beat the visiting Ottawa Senators 5-1 on Saturday night.
Paul Byron, Cole Caufield and Joel Armia each scored during a breakout second period, and Brett Kulak added some third-period insurance as the Canadiens, who halted an 0-1-2 rut at home.
Allen, who was making his second straight start after playing just once between Dec. 15 and March 16 due to COVID-19 issues and a lower-body injury, was simply superb while come up with a handful of key saves to end an 0-7-2 slide since a 6-3 victory at Pittsburgh on Nov. 27.
Josh Norris posted his 26th goal for Ottawa, which has lost nine of its last 12 contests. The Senators’ Filip Gustavsson stopped 22 shots while his losing streak as a starter reached seven games. He has allowed five or more goals four times during that stretch.
Despite both teams starting the day among the bottom four teams in the Eastern Conference, it was a spirited effort from the opening puck drop. Montreal got on the board first through Evans who, following an Ottawa turnover, corralled the puck and drove it past Gustavsson with 3:28 left in the first period.
However, the Senators answered with 1:09 to play in the frame. Off a nifty back-handed cross-slot pass from Colin White, Norris buried his 13th power-play goal of the season.
The Canadiens took the lead back just 2:42 into the second period. Michael Pezzetta settled the puck in the Ottawa zone off a lengthy pass from Evans, then led Byron, who broke in and beat Gustavsson.
Less than two minutes later, Montreal went up 3-1 as Caufield converted off a two-on-one for his 13th goal.
With just 31.6 seconds left in the middle frame, the Canadiens further padded their advantage when Armia redirected Corey Schueneman’s shot from the point for just his third goal of the season.
–Field Level Media
