OTT@MTL: Game recap

MONTREAL - The Canadiens scored early, but lost their tug-of-war match with the Ottawa Senators by a 6-3 score at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night.

SHOP: Goal Caufield t-shirt
Montreal players wore special warmup jerseys in support of the Canadiens Children's Foundation's annual RadioTéléDON. The threads are going up for auction.

Tuesday's game was forward Mike Hoffman's 600th in the NHL.

The Molson Cup was presented to Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki for their efforts in March.

The Canadiens also held a moment of silence to commemorate the passing of late Senators owner Eugene Melnyk, who died last week at the age of 62.
Brendan Gallagher didn't waste any time after getting back into the Canadiens lineup. Two and a half minutes into the game, the 29-year-old forward opened the scoring with one of his signature goals - parked in front of the net, ready to bury home the loose puck. Jake Evans got the assist.

Ottawa evened the score with five minutes to go in the opening frame. Austin Watson intercepted a pass from Jake Allen and beat the Habs netminder for his fifth of the season.
The two teams were also tied in the shots department at 11 apiece after the first.
In the second, the Sens took their first lead of the night when Tim Stützle netted his 15th of the season at the 7:18 mark.
But, just half a minute later, rookie Justin Barron showed incredible poise with the puck, hanging onto it at the blue line and waiting patiently to pick his spot, shooting it from the outside hashmarks to Anton Forsberg's right. It was Barron's first career NHL goal in his seventh game, and he earned a warm round of applause from the Bell Centre crowd to mark the occasion.

The tie game wouldn't last long, however, as Brady Tkachuk completed a tic-tac-toe in front of Jake Allen to score his 24th of the campaign to make it 3-2 for the visitors with 5:40 remaining in the period.
Then, with Connor Brown in the box for high sticking, Cole Caufield faked a one-timer from the faceoff dot to Forsberg's right before wristing it on one knee to tie the game at 3-3. It was his 16th of the season.
Hoffman and Gallagher picked up assists on the play.

The teams headed to the room all tied up again after the second, with Montreal holding an 11-9 edge in shots in the period.
In the final stanza, with Nick Suzuki still in the sin bin from his kneeing penalty late in the second, Drake Batherson scored to give Ottawa a 4-3 lead just 29 seconds after puck drop.
The Sens doubled their lead courtesy of Colin White, who scored at 11:30 of the third to make it a 5-3 game.
Austin Watson added an empty-netter with 4:04 remaining in regulation.
Allen made 26 saves in the loss.
The Canadiens' next game is on Thursday night, when they take on the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center.