 |
There was supposed to be no place like home for the Senators.
But, the final result at Scotiabank Place was far too familiar.
After picking up only one victory on their five-game road trip that ended Sunday in Anaheim, the Senators had plenty of chances on the 46 shots they fired at Montreal netminder Jaroslav Halak, but they couldn’t beat him when it counted and the result was a 4-1 loss to the Habs.
Only centre Mike Fisher was able to beat Halak, as the Senators went an ugly 0-for-7 on the power play. Sure, Halak got a little bit lucky with some of his stops, but he was the reason the Habs were smiling and the Senators were left shaking their heads after giving up two power play goals.
Making his ninth straight start, Brian Elliott couldn’t be faulted on goals by Mike Cammallleri, Marc-Andre Bergeron and Andrei Kostitsyn while Scott Gomez scored into an empty net. The Senators just struggled to score while the combination of Jason Spezza and Alexei Kovalev didn’t do a whole lot, especially on the power play.
At this rate, they won’t last long together.
There has been a lot of complaints about the amount of power plays the Senators have this season, but they shouldn’t have any about the officiating in this game. The Senators had four power play opportunities in the second period alone and weren’t able to capitalize on any.
Then, they did nothing with three golden chances in the third. Captain Daniel Alfredsson had the best chance late in the third. He fired a shot that appeared to beat Halak through the five-hole, but it trickled through the crease and outside the post.
Now, a lot of the frustration had to do with Halak, but the Senators need to do a better job getting their shots through. The club did a good job moving the puck in the Montreal zone, but they weren’t getting enough shots and the ones they did take didn’t get through to Halak on a lot of occasions.
While many in the Montreal media were surprised by coach Jacques Martin’s decision to start Halak, it was the smartest move of the night. He made huge stops and was a big reason why the Habs were clinging to a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes.
The Senators out shot the Habs 31-18 through two periods, but trailed 2-1 on the scoreboard. It was Bergeron who gave the Habs the lead at 11:47 on the power play when he fired a shot that appeared to deflect off Jesse Winchester and through Elliott’s five-hole.
Earlier, Fisher had tied it up at 1:46 by backhanding a rebound of a Milan Michalek upstairs on Halak, sitting alone in front. That was Fisher’s 13th of the season and tied his total for all of last season. Unfortunately, nobody else was able to solve Halak.
The Senators did just about everything right in the first, except score. They outshot the Habs by a count of 13-5, but found themselves down on the scoreboard 1-0 as the result of a mistake of by defenceman Chris Phillips near the Montreal blueline to set up a 2-on-1.
Unable what appeared to be a bouncing puck in, there wasn’t much Phillips could do once the puck got chipped by him. Cammalleri opened the scoring by taking a pass from Thomas Plekanec and easily beating Elliott on the stick side at 18:32 of the first.
The Senators won’t be home long. They’ll travel to Philadelphia to face the Flyers Thursday night at 7 p.m.