Allen, Anderson lift Canadiens past Senators, split two-game set

OTTAWA --Jake Allen made 34 saves for the Montreal Canadiens in a 2-1 win against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday.

"He's real calm in the net, you can see it throughout the whole game," Canadiens forward Nick Suzuki said. "He plays the puck well, he's always pretty much making the first save and it's up to us to find those rebounds. He's played great every single game he's been in the crease for us. We're lucky to have him behind Carey [Price]."
Allen, who didn't allow a goal on 27 shots after the first period, is 4-1-0 with a 1.81 goals-against average and .940 save percentage this season.
"That's why I've been brought in here, to give Carey some rest," Allen said. "He has played the most minutes in the League in the last five, six years. I've got to come in here and play well for the team, but also really spot him and make sure he's fresh as can be."
Jeff Petry and Josh Anderson scored for the Canadiens (8-2-2), who have not lost in regulation on the road this season (5-0-2).
"At the end of the day, it certainly wasn't perfect, but we had to find a way to win this game," Montreal coach Claude Julien said. "I thought we had another good first period, and even though it was 1-1, we were the dominant team."

Colin White scored, and Matt Murray made 30 saves for the Senators (2-9-1), who have lost 10 of their past 11 games (1-9-1). They defeated the Canadiens 3-2 on Thursday.
"I can't even say [Murray has] been off this year; we've let in a lot of shots from inside the dots in those games that we got blown out," White said. "The last two games, we've helped him out a lot and he's been unbelievable."

Petry's point shot through traffic on the power play gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 6:10 of the first period. White redirected a pass from Derek Stepan for a power-play goal at 12:08 to tie the game 1-1.
"They came out with a heavy, heavy push at the start, which we knew they would do," Senators coach D.J. Smith said. "We held it, got out of the first 1-1. At the end of the day, we lost the special teams battle (1-for-6 on the power-play; 2-for-3 on the penalty kill). But 5-on-5, I thought we played really hard, tracked (pucks), worked. There's nothing to be faulted for that effort."
Anderson scored on a rebound for a 2-1 lead at 1:35 of the third period after Jonathan Drouin and Suzuki were each stopped by Murray.
"We didn't have everyone going tonight," Julien said. "This was our fourth game in six nights, and sometimes fatigue sits in and you get those challenges, but the main thing is you find ways to win hockey games. I think we were good enough in that third (period) at defending that we were able to win."
Senators rookie forward Tim Stutzle, who had three shots on goal and drew three penalties in 17:37 of ice time, had his three-game goal-scoring streak end.
"When a player's that dangerous, you'd have to be crazy if you're on the other team and you're not aware when he's out there," Smith said of Stutzle. "The penalties that he drew, they're all high sticks, hit him in the face, but when you're that fast, that happens. And he handles it fine; he's been a superstar player his entire life."
NOTES:Julien became the fifth coach to win 200 games with the Canadiens (Toe Blake, 500; Dick Irvin, 431; Scotty Bowman, 419; Michel Therrien, 271). He is 200-172-48 with 10 ties in 430 games over eight seasons (2002-06; 2016-21) … The Canadiens are 4-0-0 following a loss.