Petry, Lehkonen help Canadiens past Senators

MONTREAL -- Jeff Petry and Artturi Lehkonen scored power-play goals 1:38 apart in the second period and the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-1 at Bell Centre on Sunday.

Tomas Plekanec had a goal and an assist, and Carey Price made 25 saves for the Canadiens (22-25-6), who won consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 4-7.
"This weekend, we have been more of a shooting power play," Lehkonen said. "We have been getting shots through, getting traffic in front of the goalies, and that has been pretty big."
WATCH: [All Senators vs. Canadiens highlights]
The Canadiens are 5-for-10 on the power play in their past two games, including 2-for-3 against the Senators.
Mike Hoffman scored, and Mike Condon made 31 saves for the Senators (17-25-9), who have lost seven of their past nine games (2-7-0).

Hoffman made it 1-0 at 2:05 of the second period after he intercepted Montreal defenseman David Schlemko's pass and shot past Price from the slot for his 13th goal.
Petry tied it 1-1 at 6:16 with a power-play goal nine seconds after Ottawa captain Erik Karlsson received a double minor penalty for high-sticking Jonathan Drouin to give the Canadiens a two-man advantage.

"Can't blame Erik, it wasn't intentional," Senators coach Guy Boucher said. "A 5-on-3, and they got life. And then they got another one and that was it. That's how they got the momentum."
Lehkonen gave the Canadiens the lead at 7:54 when he scored on the power play to make it 2-1. It was his first goal in 25 games.
"The first goal gave us a lot of momentum," Lehkonen said. "That power play was big for us. We kind of started going from there and it was a huge thing, for sure."
Lehkonen got his second of the period to make it 3-1 at 18:47. Plekanec got the rebound off Brendan Gallagher's shot from the point and slid a backhand pass to Lehkonen, who scored into an open net.
The assist was Plekanec's 600th NHL point (230 goals, 370 assists).
"I'm not a big stats guy but it's definitely a good feeling," Plekanec said.
Plekanec followed up the milestone by making it 4-1 with his first goal since Dec. 14 at 16:57 of the third.
"We couldn't get any traction going into the third," Karlsson said. "We tried to push for it, but they kept playing the game and made it hard for us. They didn't back up and didn't give us any easy opportunities.

Goal of the game

Lehkonen's goal at 7:54 of the second period.

Save of the game

Price's save on Matt Duchene at 8:39 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

Lehkonen's goal at 18:47 of the second period.

They said it

"I didn't like that goal at the end of the second period. That's a goal that we can't allow. We just gave that puck away then we were stuck in our own zone because of it and we were tired. That was the killer there. They got their life."-- Senators coach Guy Boucher
"We did a lot of good things. When we took the lead, we managed it well. We didn't give them much in the third period, but we also kept our foot on the gas. We played a complete 60 minutes." -- Canadiens coach Claude Julien

Need to know

Julien got his 110th win as coach of the Canadiens, moving ahead of Alain Vigneault into 11th place in Montreal history… Hoffman has four points in his past three games (one goal, three assists)… Petry has three power-play goals in the past two games.

What's next

Senators: Host the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; TSN5, RDS, MSG+, NHL.TV)
Canadiens: At the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSP, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV)