Caufield scores twice for Canadiens in win against Senators

MONTREAL -- Cole Caufield scored twice to extend his goal streak to three games, and the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-1 at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Emil Heineman scored his first NHL goal, and Juraj Slafkovsky had two assists for Montreal (2-1-0), which has allowed one goal in its first two home games. Rookie defenseman Lane Hutson had two assists to push his total to four in three games this season.

“It feels pretty good right now, but it’s only three games,” Caufield said. “We’ve played some pretty tough teams, but it’s still early and we still have a long way to go. But it feels pretty good to get off to a good start.”

Sam Montembeault stopped 24 of 25 shots after making 48 saves in a 1-0 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the season opener on Wednesday.

“It was a bit like my first start, we got a power-play goal midway in the first period and I thought we played a great game after that,” Montembeault said. “We didn’t give many shots in the first, in the second the PK was unbelievable tonight, blocked a lot of shots, and even 6-on-5, we didn’t give them much at the end, and the guys did a great job.”

Tim Stutzle scored his third goal in two games for the Senators (1-1-0), who defeated the Florida Panthers 3-1 in their season opener Thursday. Linus Ullmark made 22 saves.

Ottawa had won nine straight against Montreal dating to April 5, 2022.

“We didn’t have enough traffic, didn’t have enough inside play,” Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk said. “(Montembeault) made some good saves, but we need to do a better job. I know we had a couple of tips, but we need to make that more of our identity instead of outside shots and playing the perimeter.”

Heineman gave Montreal a 1-0 lead at 10:37 of the first period with a power-play goal, beating Ullmark with a one-timer from the slot off Christian Dvorak’s pass from behind the net. It was his first point in six NHL games.

“I’ll remember that for a long time,” Heineman said. “It’s hard to put words to it. Unreal. It’s good to get a win, too.”

Caufield made it 2-0 at 15:03, shooting over Ullmark’s right shoulder from the left circle off a return pass from Mike Matheson.

Alex Newhook pushed it to 3-0 at 3:50 of the third period with a wrist shot from the slot off a pass from Hutson.

Stutzle cut it to 3-1 at 5:30 with a snap shot from the bottom of the left circle.

Caufield made it 4-1 at 7:43, jamming in a rebound in the crease after Ullmark made the initial save on Nick Suzuki’s breakaway attempt.

“They blocked a ton of shots, but we didn’t get those grade-A chances, a lot of them, our line included,” Stutzle said. “I think we’ve got to be better. Obviously, we had high hopes for this game, but you’ve got to give them credit. They played good and we just didn’t play good enough.”

NOTES: Montembeault had his season-opening shutout streak end at 105:30. His longest previous shutout streak at any point of the season was 90:00 from Jan. 14-15, 2023. … Caufield is the first Canadiens player to score in each of the first three games of the season since Tomas Plekanec in 2014-15.