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MONTREAL — The Ottawa Senators continue to exhibit that they have an extra step on the Montreal Canadiens this season.
The experienced Senators, who appear back on track after a prolonged two-month slump, were the more determined team in an impressive 3-0 blanking of the Habs last night.
The victory, before a disappointed capacity crowd of 21,273 at the Bell Centre, was the Senators' fifth win in six meetings between the NHL rivals this season.
"If you look at the last 70 games or so, it's the teams with the most experience that has given us the most trouble," Montreal head coach Guy Carbonneau said.
Senators centre Jason Spezza celebrates one of his two goals. (Shaun Best/Reuters)
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"They made us work and we knew they were going to make it tough on us in the neutral zone. We weren't willing to put the puck in behind them. We wanted to play in front of them."
The neutral zone was a key area of the ice surface last night. While the Canadiens couldn't stickhandle their way through the Senators, Ottawa employed swift puck movement and often caught the Montreal players watching the dazzling display.
"It seems like we play a different game against Ottawa," Canadiens forward Chris Higgins said. "Through the neutral zone, they can really move the puck. We got puck-watching too much instead of picking up the man.
"We were back on our heels too much."
The love affair the city of Montreal has with its overachieving Les Canadiens took a respite as a result and wiped out the good feeling from Tuesday, when the Habs defeated the New Jersey Devils 4-0.
The Canadiens' league-leading power play also continued to struggle. It went 0-for-3 against Ottawa and now has gone 0-for-9 in its past three games.
Meanwhile, the first two goals from the Senators — Jason Spezza scored midway through the first period and again early in the second — arrived on the power play.
"Both of those areas have been cleaned up now," said Senators general manager/head coach Bryan Murray, referring to his squad's special-teams play. "There's more confidence now."
The Senators, who are 4-3-1 since Murray returned behind the bench after firing John Paddock, have now won three in a row and are back on top in the NHL's Northeast Division and one point behind the Eastern Conference-leading Devils.
Both the Senators and Canadiens have 87 points with 10 regular-season games remaining, but Ottawa gets the nod for now because it has one more win than Montreal.
Senators goaltender Martin Gerber was strong in earning his second shutout of the season. He made 28 saves.
The Senators fired 24 shots at rookie Montreal goalie Carey Price, who was good again despite the loss. The third shot to beat him came off the stick of Antoine Vermette late in the third period, when he knocked in a rebound from Chris Kelly's high shot that handcuffed Price.
Ottawa had captain Daniel Alfredsson back in the lineup after he missed four games with a back ailment.
When Alfredsson, Spezza and Dany Heatley are in the Senators' lineup, they obviously have a better chance of winning, but particularly against Montreal. The three have combined for 17 goals and 36 points in the six games against the Habs.
"They didn't have the jump they usually do, but we played smart," said Alfredsson, who skated on a line with centre Mike Fisher and left wing Cory Stillman.
The Canadiens have two more games against Ottawa in the remaining three weeks to try to solve the Senators.
"We have to find an answer to beat these guys," Higgins said. "We know they are going to be there in the second round and, if we want to get out of the East, we're going to have to play them."
