Senators get last laugh as they hang on to beat Canadiens and their invading fans

OTTAWA – There will be a time when the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens meet again in a playoff series and a great regional rivalry will be lit. Encore.

For now, it’s enough to see these two developing teams tangle for meaningful hockey in the regular season. While the Habs have had a decent start to the season, it is the Senators who harbour more realistic expectations of making noise in the Eastern Conference.

Ottawa let the visitors – and their throng of invading fans at the Canadian Tire Centre – know just that on Wednesday night with a 3-2 victory – the Senators' third straight – despite missing several key players to injury.

“We’re fighting to get back in the pack – a real gutsy effort,” Senators head coach D.J. Smith said of the victory in front of a sellout crowd of 19,567, pretty evenly split between Ottawa and Montreal factions.

“We’ve got some guys down the middle (who are) out (Josh Norris, Tim Stützle) and I thought we got some good efforts.”

As it has been during this 7-2-1 stretch for the Senators, the power play was a difference-maker. Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis was livid over some of the penalty calls against his team, but Ottawa made the Habs pay for their six penalties to the Sens' three.

Two power-play goals, by Drake Batherson and Brady Tkachuk, gave the home team a 3-0 lead in the second period, after Shane Pinto had opened the scoring early in the period.

The Habs came out flying in the first period, hit a couple of posts, but could not beat goaltender Cam Talbot until a third-period charge, when Kirby Dach and Christian Dvorak made things interesting late in the game. Fittingly, a final penalty, a hooking call against Jordan Harris at 16:44 of the third period sealed Montreal’s fate.

In the broader picture, this was a big game as the Senators look to accomplish two things before Christmas: 1. Get to .500. 2. Pass the teams closest to them in the Atlantic Division – Buffalo and Montreal.

With the win, the Sens (13-14-2) pulled into a tie with the Sabres for seventh place and drew within two points of the sixth-place Habs. With seven wins over their past 10 games, the Senators are making a charge, despite missing key players for at least another week.

Even on the injury front, the news was upbeat. As top centre Norris continues to progress toward a likely return in late January, Stützle found out Wednesday that his shoulder injury is only a strain, a contusion and nothing more, which means he could return as early as next week.

Winger Tyler Motte is also expected back soon.

These injuries have done nothing to take the pop out of Ottawa’s power play, which scored twice against Montreal to take control and has registered 17 goals in the past 11 games. The Senators have the sixth best power play in the NHL, at 27.4 per cent.

“I feel like we have so many different looks, it’s hard to defend all of them,” said Alex DeBrincat, who had primary assists on all three Ottawa goals, including two on the power play.

DeBrincat was brought in from Chicago as a scorer, but has shown to be equally good as a playmaker. While he has nine goals, DeBrincat has 18 assists.

“If we keep moving around quick like that, keep putting pucks on net and getting retrievals, we’re going to score a lot,” he said.

As a newcomer, DeBrincat is also new to the scenario of Habs fans pouring into the CTC for games during the regular season. Although most players said they enjoyed the back-and-forth chanting in the standings, DeBrincat was candid.

“It’s not always fun when you hear, ‘Go, Habs, Go!’” he said. “But, you know, other than that, it’s a great place to play. It’s pretty loud here. Makes the game fun, for sure.”

Talbot, who played four years in Edmonton, got his first taste of this eastern rivalry.

“It ranks right up there, for sure,” Talbot said. “When you’ve got both sets of fans in the building, it goes both ways, it’s pretty fun. These close-knit rivalries are always fun to be a part of.”

Whether Talbot had visions of back-to-back shutouts dancing in his head is unknown, but after shutting down Anaheim on Monday, he had Montreal’s number for 48 minutes Wednesday.

After Jake Evans won a puck battle against Erik Brannstrom, he fed Dach all alone in front for the snipe at 8:05 of the third. Talbot blamed himself, once again sparing his defence any criticism.

"I didn’t have the read on that one,” Talbot said. “I didn’t see the guy (Dach) coming down the slot. I gotta make that save – it gave them a bit of momentum. They fed off that.”

The key, though, was Ottawa surviving the first half of the first period as Montreal ran up an 8-2 advantage in shots and had the Sens back on their heels. Talbot came up big. And the Sens settled down in the second period, outshooting Montreal 16-3 while the visitors took five minor penalties, including a double-minor to Dach.

“That first period, they came out flying and we didn’t really have much of an answer for it,” Talbot said. “But, luckily, we bent and didn’t break during the first and came out and had a heck of a second period to set ourselves up for the third.”

In Talbot’s words, the Senators “brought our road game home,” and played a simple, smart game. Ottawa is now 7-7-0 at home, one more indication of a team turning its season around after a slow start.

Batherson continues to surge. With his father and sister looking on, he had a goal and assist, and now has eight goals and 18 assists on the season.

“We get up for these games, we know it’s going to be sold out, even though it’s about half and half (Sens/Habs fans) in there,” Batherson said. “Obviously, the rivalry goes back a long way against those guys. Always a fun game to play in, especially when you beat ‘em.”

Smith wasn’t admitting to any special feeling about beating the Habs, a division rival.

“We’ll take anything at this point,” he said. “You just gotta keep scratching and clawing and grab as many points as you can. Hopefully, we get some guys back and keep this thing going.”

The win sets up another divisional game Saturday, in Detroit, against the Red Wings. Though they were in a playoff position early, the Wings have really faded, and head into this game as losers of four straight.

Before the Habs game, captain Tkachuk was asked about the relevance of these two Atlantic Division games, after so many against western teams.

“These next games, they are huge for us if we want to get back in the pack here,” Tkachuk said. “We want to make strides and we have a big opportunity ahead of ourselves.”