OTTAWA – Shane Pinto scored twice as the Ottawa Senators prevented the Montreal Canadiens from clinching a playoff spot with a 5-2 win on Friday night.
Ridly Greig added a goal and an assist while Drake Batherson and Dylan Cozens also scored for Ottawa (43-30-6), which secured a playoff berth earlier this week.
Linus Ullmark made 20 saves and Michael Amadio pitched in with two assists.
Nick Suzuki and Christian Dvorak replied for Montreal (39-31-9), and Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots.
The Canadiens, who hold the second wild card in the Eastern Conference, needed a regulation win to officially capture a playoff spot but came up short. They have three games remaining in the regular season.
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The Senators avoided a season sweep at the hands of the Canadiens, who were riding a six-game win streak.
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Ottawa jumped out to a 2-0 lead before the game was five minutes old with goals from Pinto and Cozens.
The Senators wasted no time extending their advantage in the second period as Greig tapped in a nice feed from Amadio just 65 seconds in.
Montreal responded quickly with Dvorak capitalizing just over a minute later for his 12th of the season.
Batherson restored Ottawa’s three-goal cushion, redirecting a Thomas Chabot point shot to make it 4-1, before Suzuki slipped a goal past Ullmark.
The Senators netminder was solid despite the Canadiens pressing in the third period. Pinto iced the game with an empty-net goal.
Takeaways
Senators: Got off to a solid start and didn’t let up.
Canadiens: Struggled to catch up after falling behind early.
Key moment
Ottawa held Montreal to just four shots in the third period.
Key stat
Jake Sanderson picked up his 100th career NHL assist with a helper on Ottawa’s third goal. Chabot reached 300 career points with an assist on the Senators’ fourth goal.
Up next
Senators: Host the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday afternoon.
Canadiens: Take on the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Saturday night.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 11, 2024.