Suzuki, Canadiens rally to end Senators winning streak at 6

MONTREAL -- Nick Suzuki scored the go-ahead power-play goal with 4:37 remaining in the third period, and the Montreal Canadiens ended the Ottawa Senators’ six-game winning streak with a 6-3 victory at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

The Canadiens scored five goals in the third. They tied it twice in the period before Suzuki scored into an open left side of the net to make it 4-3, with the goal coming after Brendan Gallagher dug the puck loose from Senators goalie Linus Ullmark, who had made the save on Emil Heineman’s slap shot.

“We just kind of came in here after the second period, just tried to settle down,” said Suzuki, the Montreal captain. “I think we knew we hadn’t really brought our best hockey so just trying to stick to the game plan, go out there and execute at a higher level, and we were rewarded for it.”

Josh Anderson scored into an empty net for his second goal of the game with 1:44 remaining to push it to 5-3, and Gallagher then scored the Canadiens’ second empty-net goal with 59 seconds left for the 6-3 final. Gallagher also had two assists.

“We were fine,” Anderson said. “We were confident in our abilities to come back and just really stick to our game. We were doing everything we can to produce and try to win that game, and we wanted to keep pressing and that’s what we did.”

Christian Dvorak had a goal and three assists, and Jake Evans had two assists for Montreal (33-27-7), which moved into the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of the New York Rangers. New York lost 2-1 to the Calgary Flames at home on Tuesday.

Sam Montembeault made 22 saves and improved to 7-0-1 in his past eight starts.

Travis Hamonic had a goal and an assist, Drake Batherson and Michael Amadio scored, and Linus Ullmark made 27 saves for Ottawa (36-26-5), which had points in eight straight games (7-0-1).

“We knew we weren’t going to win every game for the rest of the year,” Batherson said. “We’ve just got to put it behind us.”

The Senators lead the Canadiens by four points for the first wild card from the East.

“We’ll learn from the mistakes and do some video and regroup,” Hamonic said. “There’s no sense beating ourselves up over it. It wasn’t a great effort but we’ll be ready to go.”

Dvorak gave Montreal a 1-0 lead at 2:07 of the first period. He scored for a second straight game, taking a pass from Gallagher on a breakaway and deking around Ullmark, who had lost his stick 36 seconds earlier while making a save on Patrik Laine.

Batherson tied it 1-1 at 16:42 when he carried the puck up the middle and sent a wrist shot past Montembeault’s glove from the top of the slot.

“I was kind of waiting for one of the ‘D’ to come at me to dish it out,” Batherson said. “And they gave me the lane, and I took a shot and luckily it went in.”

Amadio put Ottawa up 2-1 at 12:38 of the second period. He swatted the puck over the goal line after Hamonic’s point shot struck Montembeault and rolled over his right shoulder and down his back in the crease.

Lane Hutson tied it 2-2 at 3:38 of the third when he drove down the left side and scored on a wrist shot past Ullmark’s glove from the left face-off dot.

“Originally I was going to kind of try to take it to the middle and then I changed my mind, saw some space, and luckily it went in,” Hutson said.

Hamonic made it 3-2 for the Senators at 6:13 with a slap shot to the stick side.

Anderson tied it 3-3 at 10:22 when he put in a loose puck from just above the crease after Alexandre Carrier’s point shot hit a teammate.

“We turned the puck over too many times,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “We didn’t make enough plays with the puck. I think both teams were going to try to play a direct period in the third and they did it better than we did.”

NOTES: Suzuki reached 70 points (21 goals, 49 assists), becoming the first Montreal player to do it in consecutive seasons since Mark Recchi (three straight seasons from 1995-98). … The five goals in the third were the most by the Canadiens in that period since Nov. 27, 2021, when they scored five in the third during a 6-3 win at the Pittsburgh Penguins. … Senators forward Brady Tkachuk had a nine-game point streak end.