Sens Sweep Season Series Against Montreal

The pain of another lost season is almost over with the Senators hosting the Canadiens tonight for their final home game of the year. Heading into this one, the Senators are in the midst of another stretch of pretty good hockey. A true tale of their season, as they're either keeping up with the best of them or playing worse than the worst of them - and nothing in between. With a ton of Habs fans in the crowd tonight, the Senators looked to sweep the season series against Montreal at home to cap off 2023-24.

The game opened up with some even back and forth before the Canadiens broke open the scoring shorthanded. Jake Sanderson appeared to attempt a drop pass on the powerplay at the blueline, with Claude Giroux unable to complete his diving attempt to save the play. Mike Matheson went down on a breakaway and beat Joonas Korpisalo to make it 1-0 Montreal.

Shortly after the Matheson shorthanded goal, Jiri Smejkal found himself in the penalty box for "roughing" on an embellishment by the Habs captain for which Brendan Gallagher will have no choice but to condemn during his post game interview. There are kids watching, after all.

What we love to see, however, was Suzuki heading to the box minutes later and Brady Tkachuk finding the back of the net in response. Martin St. Louis opted to challenge the goal for goaltender interference (for some reason?) but was ultimately unsuccessful.

Through 20 minutes, the score was tied, the shot clock was tied but the Habs led the Corsi battle. Overall, we had ourselves a hockey game.

Just over a minute into the second period, Cole Caufield restored Montreal's lead with his 26th of the year. Boo.

Nearing the halfway mark of the second period, the Senators flew into Montreal's zone where Claude Giroux found Shane Pinto in the slot. The puck was barely on Pinto's stick before it hit the back of the net, tying things at two. Later in the frame, it was Caufield who would once again re-establish Montreal's one goal lead on a powerplay snipe the vast majority of goaltenders would have never saved. That one wasn't on Korpisalo.

The Sens exited the second period on the powerplay, which gave them the advantage to star the third. Just 47 seconds into the frame, Tkachuk tied things right back up with his 37th of the year.

With just under five minutes left in the period, a pass to the slot bounced of fJake Chychrun's foot and behind Korpisalo for a late Montreal lead.

Fortunately, Thomas Chabot wasn't ready to call it game quite yet. He tipped a point shot at the 1:07 mark of the third period. An incredibly eventful overtime, with multiple great opportunities at both ends of the ice was a lovely way for the fans at the Canadian Tire Centre to close out their season. Having it happen against Montreal furthered the entertainment.

It required a shootout to decide a winner and it was, of course, your Ottawa Senators taking their home finale 4-3. Drake Batherson notched the winner and Korpisalo came up big.

Game Notes

• The Ottawa Senators sweep the season series against Montreal. Does it hurt the draft position? Yes. Was it still great? Also yes.
• For Korpisalo, this would be a game where, had they lost, all eyes would have been on the goaltender. He stopped just 21 of the 25 shots he faced for a .840 but did come up big in the shootout.
• Brady Tkachuk set a career high with his 36th goal of the season. He followed that up with his 37th, too. Two games left to get to 40.
• Ridly Greig had himself a game tonight, he was everywhere. If the Senators don't have a very good player there, they at least have one who loves to show up in the heated rivalry games and play the role of *ahem* disturber.
• Jake Sanderson had three assists in this one, while Batherson factored in on two of those goals as well.
• Ottawa's powerplay was a big reason that this game wasn't a regulation win for Montreal - they cruised at a 50% clip tonight.
• Claude Giroux attempted the breakaway clapper in the shootout and was, unfortunately unsuccessful. We appreciate the dedication to the bit, Claude.
• Personally, I enjoyed the line of Jiri Smejkal, Parker Kelly and Boris Katchouk. They faired well at even strength and created some decent runs of zone pressure by being hard on the puck and disrupting Montreal's flow.

Game Flow

Heat Map