Brady Tkachuk scored his first goal of the season and also recorded an assist as the visiting Ottawa Senators won 5-2 over the rival Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night.
With 7:17 remaining in regulation and Ottawa ahead 4-2, Tkachuk, amid a delayed penalty, took a pass in the slot from Tim Stutzle and beat Montreal goaltender Sam Montembeault (24 saves) to help his team finish 4-3-0 on a season-long road stretch.
Tkachuk was playing just his sixth game and third since missing 20 with a thumb injury. He assisted on Artem Zub’s tiebreaking goal in the first period.
Fabian Zetterlund also had a goal with an assist, while Jake Sanderson and Drake Batherson scored 1:10 apart in the second period for the Senators, who got 19 saves from Linus Ullmark.
Juraj Slafkovsky and Nick Suzuki scored for Montreal, which has lost seven of 10.
With Ullmark still feeling the effects of taking Lane Hutson’s shot between the legs, Slafkovsky was on the doorstep to put in Cole Caufield’s pass just 3:37 into the game via the power play.
The Senators equalized 24 seconds later. Tyler Kleven (two assists) found Zetterlund at the low point for a successful slap shot.
Ottawa went ahead with 3:07 remaining in the first. Off a perfect no-look, backhanded pass into the slot from Tkachuk, Zub pushed the puck past Montembeault.
The Senators made it 3-1 at 5:48 of the second period. Moments after Ottawa’s Michael Amadio hit the post on a rebound, Sanderson kept the puck in the Canadiens’ zone and sent it over to Amadio, who got it back to him for a successful backhander.
Just over a minute later, Batherson cleaned up Kleven’s rebound and snapped the puck by Montembeault for a three-goal edge.
Montreal, though, again came through on the power play. Beginning with Hutson and Caufield, the puck went to Suzuki, who waited to the left of the net and found enough of an opening to beat Ullmark with 11:10 remaining in the middle frame.
–Field Level Media
