First period
- I’m trying to keep an eye on four different hockey games as the Habs and Senators get under way.
- A very nice shift from the second line almost ends in a goal for Joel Armia, but Joonas Korpisalo makes the save.
- Garry Galley is quite enamoured with Ottawa’s start. You can hear his smile as he lauds Brady Tkachuk.
- The lights are dim in Ottawa’s zone after a brief power outage, apparently. I guess Eugene Melnyk didn’t pay to upgrade to LEDs in his time as owner.
- A loud “Go Habs Go!” chant breaks out. I think Sens fans have just accepted that that’s a part of life.
- Armia caught Mathieu Joseph with his butt-end off a faceoff, and has gone to the box.
- Ottawa bobbles the puck at the blue line, and Mike Matheson pounces. He quickly gains separation, and has plenty of space to pull off a series of dekes and tuck the puck past Korpisalo.
- Nick Suzuki takes a stick in the face, and that’s going to negate the short-handed situation. Too bad.
- Ridly Greig rams Suzuki into the boards about five times. Suzuki does it once and gets a penalty. That’s okay, Suzuki has his ways of exacting revenge on the scoreboard.
- Tkachuk taps the puck in from the top of the crease. That’s just going to inspire Suzuki even more.
- Martin St-Louis is challenging for goaltender interference. Tkachuk was in the crease.
- The goal stands, so the Senators are right back on the power play.
- Tkachuk raps Suzuki in the back of the head with his stick. There’s no penalty for that.
- Cayden Primeau makes a nice glove save on Boris Katchouk after all the penalties expire.
- Armia gets another chance after a Senators turnover, but Korpisalo stops his twice.
- Galley is giggling watching highlights of Ottawa’s hits.
- Suzuki fires a snapshot off Korpisalo’s mask in the final seconds of the period.
Second period
- Cole Caufield jumps all over a rebound left by Korpisalo and puts it in the net. He’s tied his career high with his sixth goal in the past seven games. This is a great sign for next season’s performance.
- Caufield just beat Korpisalo again, but the puck literally swerved away from the goal line. Maybe this rink isn’t level I wouldn’t be surprised.
- Greig must have gone to the same cchool as Tim Stützle. He’s having trouble surviving the merest of contact. David Savard is now off for tripping after putting his stick on Greig’s hip.
- Shane Pinto ties the game on the ensuing power play. A good play by Giroux to pass the puck back to the slot when all the defenders were waiting for him to shoot set that goal up.
- Newhook gets grabbed and hauled down by two Senators defencemen a he’s about to get a break, and no call is made. The many Habs fans in attendance are upset.
- Even Galley admits it should have been a penalty.
- Montreal does get a power play with the Senators trying to play with six skaters.
- That’s a new high for Caufield. Twenty-seven goals on a nice, encouraging snipe.
- This line is going to threaten 120 goals next year.
- Suzuki will have to enjoy his revenge vicariously through his linemate.
- Matheson is now up to 62 points.
- Josh Anderson blocks the transition route out of his own zone, and the Senators get a scoring chance after the turnover.
- Tkachuk jumped over Primeau and landed on the crossbar trying to play the puck. I don’t know his plan was had he gotten hold of it.
- Giroux takes down Matheson, and that means Caufield has a shot at the hat trick.
- Sportsnet has given Caufield a little circle so you can follow him easily on the ice.
- The second unit sees a few slapshots from Justin Barron, but neither gets through to the net.
- Anderson is in the box for interference. He’s well out of the way now.
Third period
- Tkachuk scores Ottawa’s third power-play goal of the night to tie the game. The Habs left him all alone, and he made them pay.
- I heard a bench door slam, and I assume that was Suzuki after he was hooked all the way through the neutral zone.
- A very nice couple of dekes from Jesse Ylnnen sets up a chance. There’s so much skill, it’s too bad he’s never been able to harness it.
- Armia gets his stick on his man, and the refs aren’t missing any of the infractions the Habs make.
- Armia fires the puck off Jakob Chychrun’s skates from point-blank range, or that would have been the go-ahead goal.
- Johnny Kovacevic has a shot blocked by Giroux, but races back on a beeline to his post to disrupt the breakaway.
- Well it’s probably not how anyone drew it up, but Alex Newhook banks the puck off Chychrun’s skate to give his team a 4-3 lead.
- With the Senators get another power-play chance to tie this up? Stay tuned.
- Ottawa ties it up with their net empty and a minute to play. All four goals have come with an extra skater on the ice.
Overtime
- Newhook spins, fires, and hits the post.
- Jordan Harris thought about trying to hold the puck , decides to defend a two-on-one instead, and ends up breaking up the cross-ice pass.
- Suuzki recognizes very early that a pass back to Ottawa’s zone is going to end up outside the trapezoid, and races down the ice to pick it up. Just a smart guy.
- He just about got the revenge he was looking for on a breakaway, but Korpisalo just lunges across to get a toe on his shot.
- Great, confident save by Primeau on a cross-crease pass.
- Matheson and Suzuki break in a late two-on-one, but the pass doesn’t materialize.
- Another stick slam at the Habs bench. Must have been Suzuki again.
Shootout
- Brady Tkachuk gets stopped by Primeau. The least graceful head fake ever made.
- Ylönen gets stopped on his dekes.
- Drake Batherson scores just over Primeau’s pad.
- Caufield up next. He lost the puck while pulling it to his backhand.
- Giroux winds up a slapshot. Primeau isn’t fazed in the slightest.
- Suzuki tries to float one past the blocker of Korpisalo, but the goalie stays with it.
- Habs lose 5-4 and stay 28th. Darn.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) Go win your Cup, Sean
2) The one bad team that gets away with obvious stick infractions like the contenders
1) Marty needs a raise so he can pay some fines next year
