Jaroslav Halak made a season-high 45 saves to help the Montreal Canadiens to a 4-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.
The team’s third straight win was sparked by a 17th goal of the season from Michael Cammalleri with further goals from Marc-Andre Bergeron, Andrei Kostitsyn and Scott Gomez.
Mike Fisher scored for the offense-minded Senators who put up 46 shots in comparison to 27 for Montreal.
“They came out hard and they were shooting,” Halak told reporters. “That’s when I got in the game.”
Despite their chances, the home team could not break through and went 0-for-7 on power-play opportunities as they were stood up by Halak.
“We got a lot of pucks at the net but just didn’t do enough job of getting pucks in the net,” Senators center Jason Spezza said.
The Canadiens’ netminder rebounded from a dreadful start last week when he allowed six goals in a loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
This time Halak was a stone wall, pulling off several big stops to help the Canadiens (15-14-2) tie the Senators (14-11-4) with 32 points in the Northeast Division.
Tomas Plekanec added three assists for Montreal, involved in his his team’s first three scores.
Cammalleri put the Habs ahead 1-0 with 1:28 left in the first to make it five goals in his last three games.
After Fisher tied the score at 1:46 in the second, Bergeron restored the lead for Montreal, which finished with a flourish by scoring twice in the game’s final 2:12.
DUCKS 4, STARS 3, OT
At Anaheim, California, Dan Sexton, playing in his third NHL game, scored his first two NHL goals as Anaheim beat Dallas.
Sexton scored his second goal with 62 seconds left in regulation and Saku Koivu scored 4:13 into overtime. Joffrey Lupul also scored, Bobby Ryan had two assists, and Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 19 saves to help the Ducks snap a five-game losing streak.
FLYERS 6, ISLANDERS 2
At Philadelphia, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter and Claude Giroux scored two goals each as the Philadelphia Flyers beat the New York Islanders for their first win under new coach Peter Laviolette.
Brian Boucher, taking over No. 1 goalie duties from injured Ray Emery, made 22 saves for the Flyers, who broke a five-game skid.
The Flyers had dropped two consecutive games — including an 8-2 home loss to Washington on Saturday — after Laviolette replaced fired coach John Stevens on Friday.
Islanders rookie John Tavares scored both goals for New York.
PREDATORS 4, CANUCKS 2
At Nashville, Tennessee, Martin Erat had his second career NHL hat trick and added an assist to lead Nashville over Vancouver.
The Predators beat the Canucks at home for the first time since Nov. 23, 2006.
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