Gallagher, Canadiens get back on track with win against Senators

OTTAWA -- Brendan Gallagher had a goal and an assist, and the Montreal Canadiens ended a three-game skid with a 5-2 win against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday.

“It’s weird to say, but the (away) crowd gives you energy,” Gallagher said. “You know, our fans do a great job of showing up here. It felt a little bit more than 50-50 tonight. It was loud, it was energetic early. It’s nice on the road to be able to feed off of that. We appreciated it.”

Cole Caufield, Patrik Laine and Juraj Slafkovsky scored, and Nick Suzuki had two assists for the Canadiens (26-26-5), who had lost eight of nine (1-7-1). Sam Montembeault made 25 saves.

“We needed to come out and set the tone and I thought we did a great job of doing that,” Suzuki said. “Everyone was going tonight and it really showed with the way we were kind of able to control the game. With them being a little bit depleted, we had to come in here and get two points.”

Tim Stutzle had a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to nine games, and Jake Sanderson scored for the Senators (29-24-4), who have lost four straight. Linus Ullmark was pulled at 11:32 of the second period after allowing five goals on 15 shots. Anton Forsberg stopped all 10 shots he faced in relief.

“Rusty,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said of his team’s performance. “We weren’t very good with the puck. It wasn’t a very pretty game, I thought, really.”

The Senators were without captain Brady Tkachuk, who represented the United States in the 4 Nations Face-Off, and centers Josh Norris and Shane Pinto due to various injuries.

“They’re big parts of our team,” Green said of the injured players. “When three of your top players, your most skilled players [are out], I think it showed as far as our play with the puck. We need other guys to be on top of their game. I didn’t think we were on top of our game throughout our lineup.”

Gallagher gave Montreal a 1-0 lead at 2:28 of the first period. He intercepted a Drake Batherson pass in the slot, turned and beat Ullmark with a wrist shot blocker side.

“I thought we really played to our strengths,” Gallagher said. “We talked about it before the game -- risk management was big for us, especially early on. I thought we trusted our legs, we trusted our forecheck, we got rewarded. It’s not always going to be like that, but it’s important to play to your strengths and give yourself the best chance.”

Caufield extended it to 2-0 at 4:28. Arber Xhekaj’s point shot hit a body in front and went right to Caufield, who scored into an open net.

“I liked our start,” Caufield said. “I liked our kind of mentality from the start -- getting pucks behind them and going to work that way. We didn’t do anything crazy and that was the best part. We still got a lot of chances.”

Sanderson’s power-play goal cut it to 2-1 at 13:20, scoring with a wrist shot from the top of the slot.

“The standings are so tight right now; every game matters, every point,” Sanderson said. “We kind of just have that next game mentality, winning the day. It doesn’t matter what you do, just keep going and put your head down.”

Stutzle tied it 2-2 at 15:54 when he intercepted a Mike Matheson pass attempt in Ottawa's zone, skated in on a breakaway and finished a deke on the forehand past Montembault. Stutzle has 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) during his nine-game point streak.

“I think we turned the puck over too much,” Stutzle said. “Didn’t make a lot of tape to tape passes and gave them too many looks in the slot. Just not a good game.”

Laine scored on the power play to put the Canadiens back ahead 3-2 at 16:13, one-timing a pass from Lane Hutson.

Josh Anderson extended it to 4-2 at 5:14 of the second period on a Gallagher rebound.

Slafkovsky pushed it to 5-2 at 11:32 when he beat Ullmark with a slap shot glove side after Batherson misplayed the puck in the slot.

“This year, I don’t like my play, and I was thinking about it during the break and had to change something coming back,” Slafkovsky said. “It was better today, for sure. … I was winning a lot of pucks on the forecheck, playing body, making other players uncomfortable on the other side. That’s important. If I bring that every night, I just help my line.”

NOTES: Montreal snapped a five-game losing streak in Ottawa; it hadn’t won on the road against the Senators since Feb. 26, 2022. … Slafkovsky had a game-high five shots on goal and eight hits. … Canadiens forward Emil Heineman had four hits in 12:16 of ice time in his return after missing 14 games because of an upper-body injury he sustained in a traffic accident as a pedestrian in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Jan. 13. … Said Green of whether Tkachuk will play against the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday: “I hope so."