MONTREAL — The Montreal Canadiens scored four third-period goals to come from behind and beat the Ottawa Senators 5-2 on Saturday night.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Shea Weber, Paul Byron and Jonathan Drouin, into the empty net, scored in the third for the Canadiens (17-11-5). Matthew Peca added a goal in the first.
Carey Price extended his personal winning streak to five games by stopping 16-of-18 shots.
Montreal has defeated Ottawa three times in the past 12 days — all three by the score of 5-2.
Colin White and Mikkel Boedker scored for the Senators (14-16-4), who were coming off a 4-2 win against the Detroit Red Wings on Friday.
The 35-year-old Mike McKenna got the start in relief of starter Craig Anderson, who made 26 saves in Detroit. McKenna stopped 42 shots in defeat.
With the game tied 2-2 early in the third, it looked like Montreal had taken the lead when Phillip Danault put the puck behind McKenna, but the goal was waived off after Artturi Lehkonen was called for embellishment seconds before.
A loud chorus of boos rained down on the Senators, and referees, for the rest of the period.
Those boos turned into deafening cheers when Weber scored the game winner at 10:06, a powerful snap shot from the left face-off dot for his fourth goal of the season.
Byron made it 4-2 at 13:37 when he redirected Kotkaniemi’s shot past McKenna. Drouin sealed it with an empty-netter at 17:31.
The Senators have dropped six straight contests at Montreal’s Bell Centre.
With his second goal in as many games, Peca got the Canadiens on the scoreboard at 3:39 of the first period.
Montreal’s lead was extremely short-lived, with White netting the equalizer exactly 20 seconds later. White’s ninth goal of the season wasn’t without controversy because it came seconds after Brady Tkachuk appeared to trip Price with his stick.
The Canadiens challenged the goal for goaltender interference but the call on the ice stood.
Heavily outworked in the second period, the Senators scored on their first shot of the middle frame at 9:11 after the restart. Confusion between Jordie Benn and Noah Juulsen behind their own net led to Boedker’s fourth of the year.
Montreal outshot Ottawa 16-3 in the second and 47-18 overall.
The home team tied the game at 2-2 just 2:06 into the third period. Kotkaniemi’s wrist shot rang off the iron, then hit McKenna in the back and trickled across the goal line.
Notes: The Sens dropped to 2-4-1 in their past seven games. … Claude Julien earned his 600th career victory. … Price improved to 25-9-5 all-time versus Ottawa.
Kelsey Patterson, The Canadian Press
