Ottawa Senators at Montreal Canadiens

Watson scores twice, Senators beat Canadiens 6-3

Tim Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson and Colin White also scored for Ottawa.

Anton Forsberg made 27 saves as the Sens downed the Habs for the first time this season.

Montreal’s Justin Barron scored his first NHL goal in his first game at the Bell Centre. Brendan Gallagher and Cole Caufield added goals, and Jake Allen made 26 saves.

“Montreal has done some really good things obviously since (coach Martin) St. Louis has taken over,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “They’ve got lots of skill in there, they’re entertaining and they’re going to score goals.

“But tonight our power play was the difference, and when your best players are your best players, you usually win, and I thought that was the case tonight.”

Montreal (19-40-11) took an early lead when Gallagher tapped the puck in an open net. Ottawa challenged the play for goaltender interference, but the review found that Ottawa defenseman Artem Zub pushed Mike Hoffman onto Forsberg, getting the netminder out of his crease.

Watson tied it for Ottawa (26-37-6) at 15:20 of the first off a turnover by Corey Schueneman.

Stutzle and Barron exchanged goals in the second, with the 20-year-old Barron's shot from beyond the right faceoff circle beating Forsberg.

“He’s just playing the game and you can see the poise he has," St. Louis said of Barron. "I’m very happy with the small sample I’ve seen.”

Ottawa regained their lead when Michael Del Zotto, Mathieu Joseph and Tkachuk combined for a tic-tac-toe play that fooled Allen at 14:20 of the second. Montreal tied it back up after Forsberg couldn’t hold on to Caufield’s wrist shot with 3:35 remaining in the second period.

Ottawa took its third lead 29 seconds into the third period when Batherson deflected Josh Norris’ shot in front of the net on the power play. White gave Ottawa a two-goal cushion on a delayed Montreal penalty, and Watson added an empty-netter.

UP NEXT

Senators: Host Nashville on Thursday night.

Canadiens: Play at New Jersey on Thursday night.

MTL leads series 2-1