Cole Caufield scored twice, and Sam Montembeault made 24 saves in a second straight solid performance to open the season as the Montreal Canadiens won 4-1 to snap a nine-game skid against the visiting Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.
Caufield scored in the first and third periods, giving him four goals this season. According to Sportsnet, Caufield is the first Canadien to score in each of the team’s first three games of the season since Tomas Plekanec in 2014-15.
Meanwhile, Emil Heineman recorded his first NHL goal, Alex Newhook added some third-period insurance and Juraj Slafkovsky had two assists for Montreal, which beat Ottawa for the first time since March 19, 2022.
Montembeault was stout all night, yielding his first goal of the season to Tim Stutzle at 5:30 into the third period. The Montreal goaltender made 48 saves in the team’s 1-0 season-opening victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.
Stutzle’s goal was his third in two games for Ottawa, which couldn’t build on its 3-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Thursday.
The Canadiens scored twice in the opening period, beginning with 9:23 remaining. On the power play, the Canadiens’ Christian Dvorak threw the puck in front of the net for Heineman to one-time by Ottawa’s Linus Ullmark (22 saves).
The Canadiens made it 2-0 with a little less than five minutes remaining in the first. Via some nifty passing in the Ottawa zone, Caufield finished by converting over Ullmark’s right shoulder.
Ottawa outshot the Canadiens 12-4 in the second period, but had nothing to show for it against Montembeault, who was up to the challenge. Montembeault conceded few rebounds and made matters look easy.
And, after Montreal’s Mike Matheson failed to convert a penalty shot two minutes into the third, his club made it 3-0 when Newhook went top shelf with 16:10 left in regulation.
Montembeault’s run of perfection ended moments later. Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk carried the puck into the Montreal zone and found Stutzle to convert with 14:30 to play, and continue his solid start.
However, a trailing Caufield pushed in the rebound of Nick Suzuki’s shot with 12:17 to go.
–Field Level Media
