The Montreal Canadiens opened the scoring early in the first, but the Ottawa Senators immediately responded, and the game settled into a lull with few completed passes, let alone dangerous scoring chances. Despite a few battles between Brady Tkachuk and Brendan Gallagher, the game was largely emotionless, which is a rare occurence in the recent history of this rivaly.
Clearly the better team, the Habs controlled the pace despite only firing on a few cylinders. Yet a goal from the Senators in the second period seemed to remove what little will the Canadiens had to pull off a third consecutive win over the club.