OTTAWA -- Shane Pinto was more than happy to score a hat trick Saturday night in the Ottawa Senators 4-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens, but hopes there’s a repeat performance later this season.
After missing the first half last season due to a suspension, the 23-year-old is eager to get off to a strong start.
“I think it was just one of those games that the puck was kind of finding me,” said Pinto. “You just have those once in a while. Wish it was in the regular season, but hopefully I could build off of it and bring it into the regular season.”
Two years ago, Pinto hit the 20-goal mark and if he can match or improve on that milestone it would serve the Senators well.
Senators coach Travis Green didn’t know much about Pinto before he was hired but he’s liked what he’s seen.
“He’s a strong, two-way player,” said Green. He has a good 200-foot game. He’s still young, which for me is a good thing. He plays a mature game, but he’s still learning a lot of things.”
Pinto also picked up an assist on Michael Amadio’s goal and the two have shown some chemistry through the pre-season and Green didn’t rule out keeping them together.
Linus Ullmark looked solid stopping 23 shots.
Christian Dvorak and Arber Xhekaj scored for the Canadiens. Sam Montembeault made 15 saves.
It was the final exhibition game for both teams with Ottawa finishing with a 5-1-1 record, while Montreal was 2-4.
Montreal coach Martin St. Louis felt his team played well enough, but just had a lack of execution at times and these are things they’ll be able to work on.
“I liked the second half of the first period,” said St. Louis. “After that we had a chance to win the game, but the early goal in the second period hurt us a bit and I think we were missing some energy in the second half of the game.”
Pinto opened the scoring just 44 seconds into the game when he picked up a Noah Gregor rebound and scored his second at 5:57 when he tipped a Jake Sanderson shot with Ottawa on a two-man advantage.
Montreal cut the lead in half late in the period after a battle for the puck behind the net led to a bouncing puck in front and Dvorak was able to put it past Ullmark.
Pinto was the difference maker in the second as well adding a goal and an assist.
Amadio made it 3-1 just 22 seconds into the second when he tipped in an Artem Zub shot and four minutes later, Pinto forced a turnover on the Montreal power play and scored on a breakaway, beating Montembeault with a backhand.
Trailing 4-1, and struggling to beat Ullmark, Xhekaj found a way with a shot from the point midway through the third.
“He had a chance to be engaged the whole game,” said St. Louis of Xhekaj. “He fought, he scored a goal. We came out stronger with that kind of performance from him.”
The Canadiens didn’t like the score but still liked parts of the game and feel they can build off it for Wednesday’s season opener against Toronto.
“I think it’s just cleaning up little mistakes that we’ve made,” said Kaiden Guhle. “I think you’ve seen it. I made one and I think that’s what's given teams momentum in the past few games and special teams is huge. If we clean that stuff up we’ll be perfectly fine.”
NOTES
Ottawa’s top line of Claude Giroux, Tim Stutzle and Brady Tkachuk did not dress for the game. David Perron also didn’t dress. Montreal chose to sit Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky, Cole Caufield and Kirby Dach.
UP NEXT
Senators: Open the regular season hosting the Florida Panthers on Thursday.
Canadiens: Open the regular season hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.
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