Canadiens stop Sens on Dryden's special night
Montreal, QC (Sports Network) - David Aebischer stopped 26 shots to help the Montreal Canadiens to a 3-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators during Ken Dryden night at the Bell Centre.
Dryden, a former goaltender for the Canadiens in the 1970's, had his No. 29 raised to the rafters during a pre-game ceremony. He played just eight seasons in the NHL, but led the Canadiens to Stanley Cup championships in six of them, 1971, '73 and '76-79. He took the 1974-75 season off to finish his law degree.
Over the eight seasons, the Hamilton, Ontario native appeared in 397 games with a 258-57-74 record with a 2.24 GAA and 46 shutouts. In 112 playoff games he was 80-32 with a 2.40 GAA. He won the Conn Smythe trophy in 1971 and the Calder trophy in 1972, the only player in North American professional sports to win his league's championship MVP trophy before winning its rookie of the year award.
Sheldon Souray, Mark Streit and Tomas Plekanec each had a goal for the Canadiens, who have won three of their last four games.
Chris Phillips scored the lone goal and Ray Emery stopped 25 shots in the loss for the Senators, who had won seven of their last eight games coming into the contest.
Apparently the pump from the ceremony did not help the Canadiens, as a turnover in their own end went to Phillips, who blasted a shot from the left point that went through a screen and past Aebischer just 52 seconds into the game.
The Habs put 11 shots on net in the first period, but Emery turned all he face aside.
Montreal woke up in the second period and scored three goals in a 2:24 span to take a 3-1 lead.
While on the power play, Saku Koivu was robbed by Emery on a shot from the low right side and the puck went into the left corner. Michael Ryder picked up the puck and from the left circle sent a pass to Souray, who blasted a one-timer from the inside right circle under the left pad of Emery to tie the game with 9:05 left in the second.
A fortuitous bounce led to the next Montreal goal. Andrei Markov cleared the Montreal zone with a long dump in that bounced off the right boards in the Ottawa end. The puck went right to Streit, who skated to the low slot and slid the disc between the pads of Emery for a 2-1 lead just 66 seconds after the Souray goal.
A little over a minute later Plekanec picked up a loose puck at the his own blueline, skated the length of the ice and, with Tom Preissing all over him, backhanded a wrister that dinged off the right post and into the net with just 6:41 left in the second.
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