Pinto scores 1st of season for Senators in win against Canadiens

MONTREAL – Shane Pinto scored his first goal of the season for the Ottawa Senators in a 4-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

It was Pinto’s second point in as many games after serving a 41-game suspension for activities relating to sports wagering. He had an assist in his first game back, a 5-3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday.

“The boys were pretty fired up,” Ottawa forward Ridly Greig said of Pinto’s goal. “I think (Pinto) said he blacked out a little bit when he scored, so it was unreal to see him score that one.”

Greig, Jake Sanderson and Mathieu Joseph also scored for the Senators (18-24-1), who are 4-1-1 in their past six games, including a 6-2 win against Montreal on Thursday. Joonas Korpisalo made 24 saves.

“We’re playing better defensively,” Pinto said. “We’re checking for our chances, we’re not giving them much and we’re just playing simple. We’re bending, not breaking. You could see in the third (period), they came out hot for a good 10 minutes. They got one on us, but for the most part we kind of shut them down.”

Johnathan Kovacevic scored, and Jake Allen made 24 saves for the Canadiens (19-21-7), who have been outscored 19-7 during a three-game losing streak.

“I think the first goal hurt, that was a gift,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “It put us back on our heels a bit, our confidence is a little fragile right now. The thing I liked is I found that defensively we were better. I felt we regained some confidence in the third, we looked more like ourselves, so that was encouraging. But when you give gifts in this league, it’s hard to win.”

Greig gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead with a short-handed goal at 7:45 of the first period. He tucked a backhand around Allen on a rebound off Erik Brannstrom’s one-timer from the point.

Sanderson made it 2-0 at 8:26 with a wrist shot from the slot.

“There are a lot of momentum shifts in games, so we’ve got to be ready for that,” Canadiens forward Sean Monahan said. “To give up two early, it’s obviously never a good thing, but we’ve got to be able to bounce back from that.”

Pinto pushed it to 3-0 during 4-on-4 play at 6:22 of the second period. He took a stretch pass off the left-side boards from Claude Giroux from his own goal line and beat Allen on a breakaway.

“I saw he had the defense beat, and I just tried to bank it for him to get it,” Giroux said. “He’s not going to miss a lot of those, so I was extremely happy for him.”

Kovacevic’s shot from the point through traffic at 12:31 of the third period cut it to 3-1.

“I just thought we made a really good push in the third period, but how can we find ways to create more of that energy?” Canadiens forward Josh Anderson said. “I thought we played fine and we had our chances. Obviously, we’ve got to capitalize on them.”

Joseph scored an empty-net goal at 17:33 for the 4-1 final.

“The first two periods, I think we were solid in what we wanted to do, and we were consistent and just played a mature game,” Giroux said. “And in the third period they came at us pretty hard, but at the end of the day we found a way to get the win.”

NOTES: The Senators have eight straight wins against the Canadiens, their longest active streak against an opponent. … Giroux’s assist was his 699th; he is one shy of becoming the sixth active player to reach 700. … Montreal forward Tanner Pearson had one shot in 11:26 of ice time in his first game since Dec. 9 after missing 19 games with an upper-body injury.