Montreal Canadiens at Ottawa Senators

Tkachuk gets 2 goals, Batherson scores in the shootout, and Senators beat Canadiens 5-4

Shane Pinto and Thomas Chabot also scored for Ottawa, which swept the season series against the Canadiens 3-0 and extended its winning streak against Montreal to nine games.

Joonas Korpisalo made 21 saves for Ottawa.

Cole Caufield had two goals for Montreal, while Mike Matheson and Alex Newhook also scored. Cayden Primeau stopped 40 shots.

Tkachuk set a career high in goals with 37 but with the Senators long out of playoff contention, he didn't feel like celebrating.

“I mean, in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really mean much,” said Tkachuk. “Like I said this morning, it wasn’t about individual goals this year it was more team goals and unfortunately we didn’t hit them and I think there’s a lot of lessons to be learned this year.”

It was bittersweet for Senators interim coach Jacques Martin, who coached his final game at Canadian Tire Centre as he will not be behind the Ottawa bench next season.

“It’s been great,” Martin said. “I enjoyed the opportunity to come back and hopefully help the team understand what it takes to be in the playoffs, how you need to play on a nightly basis, help the players grow and maybe get better.

“As an organization I think we have some work to do, but I think we’re headed in the right direction.”

With the game tied 3-3 Newhook put a shot on net that deflected in off Ottawa’s Jakob Chychrun to put Montreal up 4-3 with 4:11 left in regulation. But with Korpisalo on the bench Chabot tied the game at 4-all with 1:05 remaining.

“The fact that we’ve been in so many (close games) this year, those are reps you can’t buy,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “They’re real reps. Sometimes you’re up protecting a lead, you’re trying to crawl back, you’re trying to get back in the game. Obviously, the overtimes and the shootouts, they are what they are, but I think as we keep progressing, we’ll find ourselves on the other side of them.”

Tkachuk tied the game, 3-3, with his second power-play goal of the game 47 seconds into the third period.

Montreal took a 2-1 lead 1:37 into the second period when Caufield slid the puck under a sprawled out Korpisalo.

Ottawa cut the lead back to one with a power-play goal at 8:36. Claude Giroux dropped a pass back to Pinto who snapped a shot from the slot. Caufield replied with a power-play goal to put the Canadiens up 3-2.

Montreal opened the scoring with a short-handed goal in the first period when Matheson broke in alone and beat Korpisalo stick side.

Tkachuk tied the game at 1 with a power-play goal at 13:08 when he grabbed his own rebound out front and backhanded a shot past Primeau.

Ottawa center Tim Stützle missed his fifth straight game with an upper-body injury.

UP NEXT

Canadiens: At Detroit on Monday night to finish a three-game trip and complete their road schedule.

Senators: At New York Rangers on Monday night to open a season-ending two-game trip.

OTT wins series 3-0