SENATORS ADVANCE TO ROUND 2; CANADIENS SEASON COMES TO AN END

GOAL SCORERS

OTT:   Z. Smith (02:17 - 1st) , C. Conacher (12:26 - 1st) , K. Turris (SHG, 11:29 - 2nd) , D. Alfredsson (PPG, 06:22 - 3rd) , C. Conacher (PPG, 12:27 - 3rd) , E. Condra (PPG, 16:12 - 3rd)

MTL:   P. Subban (PPG, 19:45 - 1st)

GOALIES

OTT: C. Anderson (W)

 MTL: P. Budaj (L)

       Earlier tonight in Montreal, the Canadiens were back at home facing elimination down 3-1 in their first round series against the Senators. Budaj would get the start as Price was out with a lower body injury. The Habs came out firing from every angle but it would be the Senators that would open the scoring. 2 minutes in, Kassians shot was stopped by Budaj and he couldn't control the rebound and Smith put the puck home to make it 1-0 Ottawa. 2 minutes later the Habs were pressing and Bourque hit the post. 10 minutes later, Conacher came up the left wing and fired a shot past Budaj to make it 2-0.

      Then with under a minute to play in the period the Habs were on a powerplay and Subban fired a shot past Anderson from the point to cut the lead to 1. The shots after the first were 17-10 Montreal. Early in the second the Senators were on a powerplay, but Armstrong had a short handed breakaway and he hit the post. Turris would add a shorthanded goal in the second and the Sens had a 3-1 lead going into the third. The shots in the second were 11-8 Montreal. 6 minutes into the third with Ottawa on a powerplay, Alfrdssons point shot beat Budaj to make it 4-1. The Senators would add 2 more goals as they beat the Habs 6-1 and win the series 4-1.

    In the loss, Budaj made 23 saves on 29 shots. In the win, Anderson was the first star and he made 33 saves."He was the player of the series," Therrien said of Anderson.  The Sens coach agreed.
"For our team, Craig Anderson obviously was the MVP of this playoff series," said Ottawa coach Paul MacLean. "He was outstanding in every game.He gives us a chance to bend but not break, to recover, get our bearings. And once we do that, we're able to establish our game." It was no doubt that Anderson is the reason why Ottawa won this series as he made on average 30 plus saves a night and if the Sens go deep in the playoffs it will be because of him.

     "We just beat the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup playoffs,"MacLean said. "I mean, to me that's huge. I'm going to call my mom and say we finally beat her team." For Montreal, they now have to look forward to the future. They had a great bounce back season going from finishing 15th in the East to Second. So Montreal should be proud and you can expect them to come back better than ever next season and you can expect Montreal to end this Stanley Cup drought within the next 5-6 years.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo