Senators score some revenge on Canadiens with big win

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The Ottawa Senators served up revenge on the scoreboard Saturday night.

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Led by winger Mark Kastelic’s first two goals of his NHL career, the Senators put the Montreal Canadiens in their place with a 6-4 victory in front of a season-high crowd of 19,410 at the Canadian Tire Center.

Neither team is headed to the post-season, but this one had a playoff atmosphere. The Senators extended their winning streak to three straight games while Austin Watson, Alex Formenton, Josh Norris and Parker Kelly also beat Montreal goaltender Carey Price.

Making his 100th NHL start, Anton Forsberg saved the day with the Senators outshot 16-2 in the third period alone as the Habs pressed to tie it up. He picked up his 20th win of the season as a result.

This was the first time the two teams had met since Nick Suzuki’s knee-on-knee hit on Senators center Tim Stuetzle. He missed two games after the incident, but was also accused of being a “diver” by Montreal winger Brendan Gallagher in the aftermath of Ottawa’s 6-3 victory at the Bell Center.

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With Connor Brown nursing an undisclosed injury, the Senators called up winger Scott Sabourin from its AHL affiliate in Belleville to dress for this one. Make no mistake, he was brought in as a deterrent because the Senators haven’t liked the treatment of Stuetzle since Gallagher’s accusations.

“My concern as a coach is that Tim Stuetzle continues to get better and he continues to get better,” Sens coach DJ Smith said before the game. “I’m not worried. Tim, over time, is going to prove how good and how tough a player he is.”

Sabourin was here to provide a presence and to let the Habs know the club wasn’t about to let this one get out of control. It was, after all, the last Hockey Night in Canada of the season for the Senators and there was no way they wanted Montreal to walk all over them.

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Just for good measure, Sabourin had two assists and Captain Brady Tkachuk stepped in when the Habs tried to push back physically on Stuetzle.

“Timmy has never been hit harder since the trade deadline and he continues to battle through,” Smith added. “At this point, with so many injuries and some physical teams coming here, I just think it’s the right time to bring (Kastelic and Sabourin) up here.”

There were a lot of points in this game where you felt it was going to go off the rails and there may be a brawl, but cooler heads prevailed. There was pushing and shoving after the whistles but it didn’t amount to much.

This was a wildly entertaining game and may have been closer than the Senators would have liked but they were able to shut the door when necessary.

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With the Senators sitting back to try to protect the lead, Montreal’s Rem Pitlick scored his second of the game at 8:19 of the third to cut Ottawa’s lead to two goals. At that point, Ottawa had been outshot 9-1.

Ahead 6-3 after two periods, the Senators looked like they were in control, but the Habs refused to back down.

Not long after Joel Edmunson scored on a delayed penalty to cut Ottawa’s lead to 5-3, Formenton tied the league lead with his fifth shorthanded effort of the season by beating Price on a breakaway at 18:05.

Three goals in a span of 1:07 in the second put the Senators in the driver’s seat heading to the third. Kastelic’s second of the night at 7:50 gave the club a brief 5-1 lead before Cole Caufield closed the gap at 8:43.

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Norris’ 34th of the season a perfect tip-in gave the Senators a 4-1 advantage at 7:15. Kelly, who had one taken away in Columbus, got the party started with his seventh of him with a blast by Price at 6:43.

The three goals were the second-fastest trio of goals in franchise history.

Only 44 seconds into the second, Watson tipped a Nick Holden shot from the point by Price. That was Watson’s ninth of the season and he has been on fire lately with six goals in the club’s past 12 games.

Tied at 1-1 after the first, the Senators and Habs engaged in a lot of shoving matches after the whistles and it felt like this one could have gotten out of control if the officials didn’t get a handle on it.

Left alone in front, Pitlick, made no mistake by depositing it by Forsberg glove side at 15:57 of the first to tie it up 1-1 on the 15th shot he faced.

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Born in Ottawa April 2, 1997 while his father, Lance, was helping the club make their first run to the playoffs, you have to know the former Senators’ defenseman and his wife, Lisa, were wearing wide smiles back in Minnesota.

Not a bad start by Kastelic. He scored his first NHL goal and got in a fight on the same shift. First, he fired it by Price on the glove side from the right circle and then Kastelic engaged in some fisticuffs with Montreal’s Michael Pezzetta.

Kastelic didn’t even get a chance to celebrate the puck going in the net because initially the goal light didn’t go on and by the time it did he already had his hands full with Pezzetta.

The Sens will host the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday.