Canadiens handle Senators, sweep home-and-home

OTTAWA-- The Montreal Canadiens swept a home-and-home series with the Ottawa Senators, winning 5-2 at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.

Paul Byron scored twice for Montreal (14-10-5), which won 5-2 at Bell Centre on Tuesday.
"What I wanted from the guys is that we were willing to play both kind of games," Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. "Play solid, play strong, not crack, just hang in there and we'd eventually get our chances. I thought the guys did a good job of that."
WATCH: [All Canadiens vs. Senators highlights]
Carey Price made 19 saves for the Canadiens, who are 3-1-0 in their past four games after a five-game losing streak.
Mark Stone and Colin White scored, and Craig Anderson made 38 saves for Ottawa (12-14-3), which had won three in a row before playing Montreal.
"Anytime we lose to Montreal, it stings a little bit more," White said. "We made a couple mistakes and it cost us again."
The Canadiens outshot the Senators 43-21, and 84-51 in the two games.
"We've talked about how we want to finish," Julien said. "Especially when you have the lead, it's easy to kind of sit back and get comfortable, and we've done that at times this year. That's an area we're trying to improve on. I think in the last little while we've been better in the third and we've kind of controlled the period, even though we've been in the lead."
Stone's wrist shot got through traffic to give the Senators a 1-0 lead at 7:58 of the first period. Jeff Petry's wrist shot from the right point tied it 1-1 at 8:18.

"The most important goal of the game was the tying one that the fourth line gave us," Byron said. "Ottawa had a huge push at the start, we knew they would. [They were the] home team and they got the momentum early. But [our fourth line] came right back, had an unbelievable shift for us and got us back in a tie game. You could just see our team, the momentum we gained from that, that was a huge goal for us."
Byron chipped a cross-crease pass from Phillip Danault to make it 2-1 at 11:03 of the second period. Andrew Shaw one-timed a pass from Jonathan Drouin at the top of the crease to give the Canadiens a 3-1 lead at 15:42.

The Senators made it 3-2 with 1:10 left when White got a rebound in the slot on the power play.
Brendan Gallagher tipped a point shot that hit the post, banked off Anderson's skate and trickled into the net to make it 4-2 at 3:19 of the third period.
"A couple games ago, I celebrated too early and it didn't go in," Gallagher said. "So I was trying not to do that again, but it was nice to see it cross the line."
Byron scored into an empty net to make it 5-2 at 17:28.

"It wasn't a good night for us," Anderson said. "That's the sum of all the parts. I think we definitely could've played better, but I can't look at what our forwards or [defensemen] do ... I've got to look at myself first and say, 'Did I give our team a chance?'"

They said it

"We knew that if we just kept skating, kept pushing, kept pushing, it was going to make it harder on them. When you've got four lines that can play the way we have been lately, that can play and push the pace and play in their end, forecheck, it certainly makes it hard for the other team." -- Canadiens forward Paul Byron
"The major thing that we need to do is play with the puck a little more. That's the key. When they had the puck, they made support passes, they supported the puck, they came in with speed. When we had the puck, it just seemed like we were just a little too separated. It's tough to play that way." -- Senators goalie Craig Anderson

Need to know

Senators forwards Matt Duchene and Bobby Ryan each left the game in the second period. Duchene has been diagnosed with a lower-body injury and Ryan with an upper-body injury. Ottawa coach Guy Boucher said they will know the severity of each injury in the coming days. ... Price is 24-9-5 against the Senators.

What's next

Canadiens: At the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday (6 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN, SN1, NBCSCH, RDS, NHL.TV)
Senators: Host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN360, CITY, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV)