Senators stay hot against Canadiens, who fail to gain in North

OTTAWA --The Montreal Canadiens failed to pad their lead for fourth place in the Scotia North Division when they lost 5-1 to the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Wednesday.

Joel Edmundson scored, and Jake Allen made 29 saves for Montreal (24-19-9), which had won three straight. It leads the Calgary Flames by 10 points for the final Stanley Cup Playoff berth from the division.
"Our compete level wasn't there," Edmundson said. "We were getting beat off pucks all night and they took advantage of it."
Shane Pinto scored his first NHL goal, and Erik Brannstrom had three assists for Ottawa (21-27-5), which is 7-1-1 in its past nine games and finished the season 6-3-1 against Montreal.
"I thought we worked as a group," Senators coach D.J. Smith said. "I thought we tracked, we didn't cheat. We got a good result tonight."

Anton Forsberg made 30 saves after signing a one-year, $900,000 contract for next season earlier in the day,
"I just thought Forsberg was outstanding," Smith said. "He just looked so confident. He worked so hard. He worked to get pucks for us back there wire to wire. He was outstanding."
Pinto, who was playing his ninth NHL game, scored on a rebound at the edge of the crease to give the Senators a 1-0 lead at 11:35 of the first period.
"It was good to get the first one out of the way," Pinto said. "I'm just happy we won. I thought we played pretty well, and to contribute to that, it's obviously really cool."
Edmundson took a pass from Tyler Toffoli in the left circle and scored short side over Forsberg's shoulder to tie it 1-1 at 19:28.
"I just saw an opening and picked my time to jump in," Edmundson said. "[Toffoli] did a good job of finding me coming down the slot. It's just a matter of if it's open or not, and tonight there were a couple of chances to jump in."

Brady Tkachuk put Ottawa ahead 2-1 at 3:44 of the second period when he took a centering pass from Josh Norris, and Nicholas Paul tipped a point shot from Brannstrom to make it 3-1 at 19:52.
Connor Brown extended the lead to 4-1 at 4:40 of the third period, scoring on a one-timer off a diagonal cross-ice pass from Artem Zub.
Alex Formenton skated around Edmundson before chipping the puck over Allen's glove at 10:19 for the 5-1 final.
"We were flat from the start to the finish of the game tonight," Canadiens forward Josh Anderson said. "We just couldn't find our energy and get up to that level. Obviously, you've got to give them credit. They worked hard, they reloaded, they were hunting pucks and they were the better team tonight."
NOTES:Senators defenseman Olle Alsing had two hits and one block in 12:05 of ice time in his NHL debut. … Brown has scored 19 goals this season, one shy of his NHL career high set with the Toronto Maple Leafs as a rookie in 2016-17. ... Montreal defenseman Shea Weber (upper body) is not expected to play Thursday or Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.