Shane Pinto had a hat trick and an assist as the Ottawa Senators beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 on Saturday, ending their preseason schedule with a fourth straight loss.
Pinto scored his first goal at even power, his second with two men on the ice and his third shorthanded. Michael Amadio had the other Senators scorer.
Christian Dvorak, at the very end of the first period, and Arber Xhekaj, in the third period, provided the response for the Canadiens, who have not been able to find the back of the net once on the power play during their six preparatory games.
After Tuesday’s intense clash between the two teams, head coaches Martin St-Louis and Travis Green decided to give their best offensive players a day off and they did well since the first period saw some very lively play.
The hostilities were opened early by Xhekaj, who applied a solid cross-check to forward Adam Gaudette. Zack MacEwan then dropped the gloves, but he regretted it as the Canadiens’ tough guy delivered several good punches.
We got another skirmish in the moments afterward when defenseman Kaiden Guhle, playing in his first preseason game after undergoing an appendectomy, applied a solid body check to Matthew Highmore.
It was the Habs who came away with a power play, but they were unable to take advantage of it, once again. Young defenseman Adam Engstrom had the best chance to score when his shot hit the post.
The Canadiens will begin their regular season on Wednesday when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre.
The Shane Pinto Show
After just 44 seconds of play, Canadiens forward Joshua Roy was the victim of a turnover and Shane Pinto took advantage to open his account by jumping on a rebound from Noah Gregor.
Michael Pezzetta, for high sticking, and Christian Dvorak, for tripping, found themselves in the penalty box at the same time a few minutes later and the Senators took advantage.
Pinto, again, redirected a wrist shot from defender Jake Sanderson.
Before the end of the first period, Dvorak cut the deficit to one when he took advantage of good work from Brendan Gallagher and Alex Barré-Boulet near the net. He pushed a puck into the slot behind Linus Ullmark.
Similar to the first period, the Senators scored in the first minute of the second period when Michael Amadio redirected an Artem Zub shot 22 seconds into the game. Pinto picked up his third point of the game on the sequence.
Zub was penalized for holding Gallagher a few minutes later, but it was the Senators who took advantage. Pinto stole the puck from Alex Newhook shorthanded and then beat Samuel Montembeault with a nice fake.
The star of the game was up to no good again at the very end of the period when he hit Logan Mailloux with time left on the clock. Xhekaj, who was on the ice, clearly showed him that he didn’t appreciate it, but the officials quickly intervened.
The Habs’ rugged defenceman returned to the fray in the third period, but with his shot rather than his fists. He took a pass from Guhle before unleashing a powerful slapshot that deflected off a Senators player and beat Ullmark.
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