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 Both teams rested their first choice goalies, with rookie Mike
Condon stopping 20 shots for the win for Montreal.
"A lot of times when the backup goes in there, you see (the team)
changing, and we didn't change anything," Canadiens defensemen P.K.
Subban said.
"Guys felt confident with him in there. He established early that he
was ready and he was sharp.
"Listen, I've got to give him credit. He went in there and did
exactly what he had to do. We get that from Carey (Price) every
night. What Carey brings, we got that from him tonight."
Senators goalie Matt O'Connor made 31 saves, while center
Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored their lone goal.
Plekanec beat O'Connor with a weak shot that bounced off the
goaltender to open the scoring before he picked up his second on a
breakaway with 1:26 remaining in the first period when he put it
through O'Connor's pads.
Pageau put Ottawa on the board in the second period with a
short-handed goal, before Mitchell deflected a screened shot by
Subban that O'Connor never saw into the net with just over 14
minutes remaining in the game.
Condon then made two big stops off Erik Karlsson in the final minute
with O'Connor on the bench for an extra attacker to preserve the
victory.
"I was very, very lucky. (Karlsson) had the whole side of the net
open, so lucky he shot it back into me," Condon said.
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"I thought the guys played an awesome game.
"I think we only had 15 shots against going into the third period,
only maybe five or six scoring chances. They made my workload very
light."
Senators coach Dave Cameron was concerned that his team had not
played with enough energy to really challenge the rookie goaltender.
"We talk all the time about if we're going to establish ourselves as
any kind of team that's tough to play against, you have to go
through pucks, not around them," Cameron said.
"Montreal did a good job of choking us off, but if you don't respond
by going through pucks and getting pucks to the net, it's going to
be a long night.
"It was a long night."
(Compiled by Greg Stutchbury)
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