Murray gets Senators' first shutout in two years to top Canadiens

MONTREAL -- Matt Murray made 23 saves for the Ottawa Senators' first shutout in two years, 4-0 against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Murray got his 12th NHL shutout in his second start since missing 11 games with an upper-body injury. It was his first shutout since Oct. 26, 2019, when he made 25 saves in a 6-0 win for the Pittsburgh Penguins against the Dallas Stars.
"I think it says a lot about how well the team played," Murray said. "It seemed like a very kind of defensive style of game. Everybody was just kind of clogging up the middle."
Drake Batherson had two goals and an assist for Ottawa (15-26-4), which has won two of three following a four-game losing streak. It was the forward's first three-point game in the NHL.
"We came out hungry right from the get-go tonight and got rewarded," Batherson said. "And we had great goaltending tonight too by Murray. He was awesome."

Carey Price made 11 saves in his first game since April 5 for Montreal (19-14-9), which was 2-4-0 while he was out with a lower-body injury.
"I felt pretty good," Price said. "You know, whenever you take a break there's always a bit of an adjustment period getting back, but I thought the adjustment was pretty quick."
Jake Allen made six straight starts when Price was injured, including a 2-1 win against the Calgary Flames on Friday.
The Canadiens are fourth in the seven-team Scotia North Division, six points ahead of the Flames. The top four teams will qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"We just need to find some consistency," Price said. "I think everybody in the League wants to find that. You know everybody in this league wants to win and everybody's playing hard, so we just have to find that on a nightly basis."
It was the Senators' first shutout under coach D.J. Smith and first since March 26, 2019, when Craig Anderson made 35 saves in a 4-0 win against the Buffalo Sabres. Anderson was also in goal for Ottawa's last shutout on the road, making 25 saves in a 6-0 win at the Flames on Oct. 13, 2017.
"Our execution wasn't good at times, and we didn't get enough traffic in front of [Murray]," Canadiens coach Dominique Ducharme said.

Batherson set up Artem Zub, who gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead at 3:03 of the first period on its first shot.
Canadiens defenseman Joel Edmundson was struck in the face when Batherson's shot deflected off his stick. The forward retrieved the puck and carried it into the right corner before passing back to Zub, who scored on a wrist shot from the slot.
Batherson made it 2-0 when he scored between Price's pads on a 2-on-1 at 13:12 of the second period.
Batherson scored again on the power play at 15:26 of the third period for a 3-0 lead.
Nikita Zaitsev shot into an empty net from behind his own goal line to make it 4-0 with 4:15 remaining.
Forward Shane Pinto assisted on Zaitsev's goal after winning a face-off in Ottawa's zone, getting a point in his NHL debut. The Senators' second-round pick (No. 32) in the 2019 NHL Draft is the fifth player to make his NHL debut for Ottawa this season.
"I think it's pretty cool, obviously," Pinto said. "I'm just happy I won the draw so we were able to get it out of the D-zone."
NOTES:Batherson has scored 11 points (five goals, six assists) in eight games against the Canadiens this season. … The other four Senators to make his debut this season are forward Tim Stutzle, defensemen Zub and Jacob Bernard-Docker, and goalie Filip Gustavsson. … Cole Caufield, the Hobey Baker Award winner as the top player in NCAA Division I men's ice hockey this season, will be on Montreal's five-game road trip that begins at the Edmonton Oilers on Monday. The forward, the Canadiens' first-round pick (No. 15) in the 2019 draft, was recalled to the taxi squad from Laval of the American Hockey League and took part in his first practice at the morning skate Friday. Recently acquired defensemen Erik Gustafsson and Jon Merrill are in quarantine in Edmonton and will join Montreal there. The Canadiens got Gustafsson in a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers prior to the NHL Trade Deadline on Monday, one day after acquiring Merrill in a trade with the Detroit Red Wings. … Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher will not require surgery on his broken thumb. He was injured in a 3-2 overtime win against the Oilers on April 5 and was expected to be out for six weeks.