Ottawa Senators bags a big win over Montreal Canadiens in its last home game of the season –NHL Update
It might have been Ottawa Senators’ last game at home, this season, which has been undoubtedly its worst season in the last 15 years, but still it made the home crowd happy, defeating their long time rivals, Montreal Canadiens, 3-2, at the Scotiabank Place
in Ottawa, Ontario, in overtime.
The overcrowded stadium was filled with roars after Ottawa Senators defeated Canadiens and had the last say, even though they lost four times in the past six meetings.
19,809 fans rose to their feet after defenseman, Filip Kuba, scored the OT winner.
Backup goalie for Montreal Canadiens, Alex Auld, had a hard time covering the net as Senators took 32 shots at his net. Auld was barely able to block 29 shots taken by his former team in his first match against them.
"It's a challenge, obviously, clinching the other night and then playing against a team that's not in playoff mode", Auld said. "They're a little freer, a little looser, playing for jobs for next year".
A moment of silence was observed during the game in honour of E.J. McGuire, the National Hockey League’s head of central scouting and former assistant coach of Ottawa Senators. He died at the age of 58 due to terminal cancer on Thursday.
Montreal’s Brian Gionta scored his 27th of the season and first of the match a little over midway through the second period.
His shot came as a result of a rebound from Montreal’s captain, James Wisniewski’s, shot bounced off from home goalie, Craig Anderson’s, pad and straight to Gionta’s stick.
It was a sold out crowd for only the 16th time this season and feared another loss as they witnessed their team heading into the final period with a 1-0 deficit.
Jason Spezza gave his fans a breath of fresh air when he tied up the match, 36 seconds into the second period.
Bobby Butler took the lead for Senators, sponsored by an assist from Spezza, with less than three minutes remaining in the game.
Mike Cammalleri silenced the crowd once again by tying up the scores and forcing an unexpected overtime with 11 seconds remaining in the final period.
"We need to be a little sharper and a little more assertive in our game. To tie it up at the end was nice, but it was maybe a bit of a mental let down after last game", Cammalleri said about their OT loss. "We could've done a better job of that”.
Kuba answered Ottawa’s prayers by making the game winning shot a little over a minute into the OT.
Senators’ defensive end paralysed Canadiens indefinitely by not giving them any shooting opportunities during the extra five minutes while they themselves had three shots on goal.
Ottawa plays its final game against Bruins on Saturday in Boston while Montreal will visit Toronto the same day to face Maple Leafs.
Tags: