NHL Game Summary - Ottawa at Montreal
Montreal, QC (SportsNetwork.com) - Craig Anderson helped keep the Ottawa Senators alive for another game with a terrific performance in a 5-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals on Friday.
Anderson, who provided a 28-save shutout in Game 4, made his third straight start after taking over for rookie Andrew Hammond and finished with 45 saves, 19 of which came in the third period.
"Pressure is what you make of it and for me it's just focusing on the right things," said Anderson. "I just go out there and play."
Mike Hoffman tallied a goal and an assist, while Bobby Ryan, Patrick Wiercioch, Erik Karlsson and Erik Condra also scored for the Senators, who staved off elimination for a second game after falling behind 3-0 in this best-of-seven series.
"We weathered the storm and got the result we wanted," Ottawa head coach Dave Cameron said. "The pressure shifts a bit toward Montreal."
Tom Gilbert provided Montreal's lone marker and Carey Price allowed all five goals on 25 shots in defeat.
"We came out of the gate really hard and they took advantage of their opportunity," Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien said. "Anderson was really good."
The series will shift back to Ottawa for Game 6 on Sunday.
Despite being outplayed and outshot in the early going, Ottawa opened the scoring for the fifth straight game. Ryan received the puck from Mike Hoffman, skated up to the top of the left circle and beat Price with a long-range wrister 9:29 into the game.
Wiercioch increased the Senators' lead to 2-0 after moving up to the left- circle faceoff dot and wristing a shot through a maze of players in front over Price's shoulder with 4:21 left in the first period.
Nearly five minutes into the second, Subban cleared the puck from his zone that forced Anderson to stop it with his pads far from his crease. Tomas Plekanec tracked down the rebound for a short-handed breakaway, but Anderson denied him with a blocker stop.
On the man advantage, Karlsson received the puck at the blue line off a broken play and blasted a shot past Price's blocker for a 3-0 advantage with 5:31 left in the second.
Gilbert finally put the Canadiens on board with a slapper from the left point that deflected off Ryan's stick in front just 1:44 into the final stanza.
Condra restored Ottawa's three-goal advantage by forcing a turnover in the neutral zone, skating in for a breakaway and sliding a backhander off a deke past Price with 5:58 left in regulation.
The game took a nasty turn with two minutes to play as Canadiens forward Brandon Prust got into a spearing match with Anderson in the crease, which resulted in a pair of misconducts to Ottawa's Eric Gryba and Montreal's Subban.
On the ensuing power play, Hoffman's blast from the high slot with 50 seconds to play accounted for the final score.