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Senators humbled by Canadiens in round two |
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A night after round one could have gone either way and went to a shootout, round two of the much anticipated Ottawa-Montreal showdown for first place couldn't have gone much worse for Ottawa.
Falling behind in the first minute, the Senators never seemed to find their game and were off for most of the night. Even when Tom Pyatt answered that Tomas Pleckanec icebreaker within four minutes, it was a game where Ottawa was chasing Montreal everywhere, Montreal was winning all of the races to loose pucks and Carey Price was on top of his game. When the latter of those facts is in play, the Canadiens are a pretty good bet against most teams on most nights.
Paul Byron is an Ottawa native and played junior in Gatineau, but he is rarely friendly to his hometown team. He seems to be a thorn in the side of the Senators whenever he plays them, and that was in evidence again Sunday night as he had a goal and an assist, notching his career high 20th goal.
Unlike Price, Craig Anderson was not on top of his game in the second game of the back to back after coming off an injury. I thought beforehand that it would be wise to turn to Mike Condon for this one, and although I am not sure it would have made a difference, there were a couple of weak ones on Anderson, most notably Byron's shot that beat him clean five hole from a distance.
Ottawa will want to put this one in the rear-view mirror, and face the facts that now sitting four points back their chances of winning the Atlantic are now pretty slim. They have to focus on keeping ahead of tomorrow night's opponent, the Boston Bruins.
Montreal plays one team that currently sits in a playoff spot for the rest of their schedule - the Senators next Saturday - so their road to the top seed in the division is simpler than the Senators, who have Boston and Pittsburgh this week before the rematch with the Habs next Saturday.
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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