Montreal Canadiens at Ottawa Senators

Senators score 3 in 2nd, hold on to beat Canadiens 3-2

Alex DeBrincat had three assists as Ottawa won for the seventh time in 10 games (7-2-1) overall and improved to 8-8 at home. Cam Talbot stopped 23 shots made 23 saves to win his third straight start.

“We’ll take any win at this point,” Senators coach D.J. Smith said. “You’ve just got to keep clawing and scratching and clawing and grab as many points as you can and hope you get some guys back and keep this thing going.”

Kirby Dach and Christian Dvorak scored in the third period for Montreal, which has lost five of its last eight (3-4-1), but were unable to score the equalizer. Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots.

The Canadiens finally solved Talbot at 8:05 of the third as Dach glided into the slot and converted a pass from Jake Evans for his fifth to send the partisan Montreal crowd into a frenzy.

“When you get both sets of fans in the building, it goes both ways,” Talbot said. “It’s pretty fun … these close knit rivalries are always good to be a part of and happy to come out on the winning end of this one.”

Dvorak made it a one-goal game when he beat Talbot on a delayed penalty call with 6:48 remaining for his sixth.

That was as close as the Canadiens could get.

“Obviously they had a good push at the end, but we stay with it,” Pinto said. “Talbot made some good saves and we just stay calm, as much as we could. I know it got a little hectic there, but we got two points so that’s all that matters.”

Montembeault denied Pinto on a point-blank shot early in the second. However, moments later, the Senators forward took a great feed from Nikita Zaitsev and and scored off the post for his 10th at 1:28.

Batherson made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 5:41 when he scored through his own legs in front of the net for his eighth.

“I didn’t even know it was between the legs until the replay,” Batherson said. “I’ll take it any way they can come though.”

Tkachuk added Ottawa’s second power-play goal when he tipped DeBrincat's pass past Montembeault at 8:02 for his 13th.

“Our discipline kind of slipped away in the second,” said Dach, who took a double minor late in the period. “I felt like 5-on-5, we were playing our game, we had control. … I obviously take ownership with the penalties I took. The timing of them wasn’t the best.”

Dvorak agreed, adding: “We were just on the penalty kill the whole period. ... It’s tough when you’re doing that.”

DeBrincat extended his point streak to seven games (three goals, seven assists). Batherson pushed his point streak to six games (three goals, five assists).

DEBUT

Senators C Jacob Lucchini made his NHL debut Wednesday night. The 27-year-old got the experience of taking a rookie lap during warmups.

SIDELINED

The Senators will be without Tim Stutzle for at least a week as he recovers from a shoulder contusion after being hit by the Ducks’ Brett Leason on Monday night. ... Tyler Motte is expected to miss at least a week with an undisclosed upper body injury after going down hard in the same game. ... Jonathan Drouin returned to Montreal’s lineup after missing 13 games with an upper-body injury.

UP NEXT

Canadiens: Host Anaheim on Thursday night to open a two-game homestand.

Senators: At Detroit on Saturday to open a three-game trip.

OTT leads series 1-0