Tkachuk, Senators defeat Canadiens in OT

OTTAWA -- Brady Tkachuk scored 3:30 into overtime to give the Ottawa Senators a 3-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Canadian Tire Centre on Sunday.

Tkachuk, who also had an assist, skated above the goal line and attempted a pass to Erik Brannstrom, but the puck hit the skate of Canadiens defenseman Alexander Romanov and bounced back to Tkachuk for a shot from the slot.
"Our mentality in overtime is to win this and to not sit back," Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. "And certainly, we did that. You can see some of the young kids start to get confidence, start to be a lot better with the puck. A year ago in overtime, we would just be hanging on, and I just thought we were attacking. We were dangerous."

Drake Batherson had a goal and an assist, and Matt Murray made 30 saves for the Senators (5-14-1), who are 3-2-0 in their past five games.
"I think Murray was our MVP tonight," Tkachuk said. "He's been our MVP for most of the year, or all the year, and now we've just got to help him out during those tough times as a group. He's been awesome for us."
Nick Suzuki and Corey Perry scored, and Jake Allen made 36 saves for the Canadiens (9-5-3), who have one win in their past five games (1-3-1).
"We were just sloppy in overtime," Montreal coach Claude Julien said. "We got tired at the end. That goal that they scored, we had two guys that had been out there for a long time and we didn't handle it well and we end up giving the opportunity to win the hockey game."
Suzuki gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 1:17 of the first period with a wrist shot that went in off the right post on the rush.
"I think we're pretty much all up in our own heads right now," Suzuki said. "I think just overthinking it, playing not to lose, and that's never a good thing to do."

Batherson tied it 1-1 at 9:47 of the first when his shot following a toe drag tipped off Romanov's stick and floated over Allen.
"We should've simplified our game," Julien said. "Some of the breakaways we gave, we're just playing high-risk hockey at times. We're making some decisions that are high risk and it ends up costing us. So we need to settle down here and play a more stable type of game."
Josh Norris tipped a point shot from Nikita Zaitsev to give Ottawa a 2-1 lead at 3:33 of the third period.
"The third period was a lot of fun," Norris said. "I thought we had a lot of really good chances, had a lot of (offensive) zone time and were breaking the puck out really well, had some really good regroups in the neutral zone. Just did a lot of good things."
Perry deked Senators defenseman Erik Gudbranson before tucking the puck around Murray's outstretched left pad to tie it 2-2 at 14:35.
NOTES:Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin left the game with 15 seconds left in the second period after a hit from Senators defenseman Mike Reilly. … Ottawa forward Evgenii Dadonov played his 300th NHL game. … Murray's win was his first in seven games.