Ottawa Senators’ Jean-Gabriel Pageau led Ottawa over Montreal Canadiens, but unfortunately the game will be remembered for the behavior of the two teams in a fight-filled night.
Rookie Pageau scored a hat trick and lost a tooth as the Senators sailed to a 6-1 victory over the Habs to take a 2-1 series lead. After his first goal in the second period he took a high stick to his mouth and spent the time finding his tooth. He scored again a minute into the third and his third goal was the final goal of the game. Hats littered the ice as the Senator fans celebrated the hat trick.
The real stories are the penalties. There are 60 minutes in a hockey game. This game had a total of 236 penalty minutes. Montreal had 129 minutes and Ottawa had 107. Ever since Lars Eller went down in game one tensions have been high between these two teams and tonight was the tipping point.
The Senators made it a point to target P.K. Subban all night. It started for him in the first period when Marc Methot fought with Subban. It was one of his three penalties of the game. His night ended at the 8:31 mark when he let go of his frustrations on Kyle Turris. He received a 2:00 instigator and 5:00 major fighting penalties and a 10:00 game misconduct.
The huge fight happened 7:04 into the third period. Everyone on the ice was fighting except goalies Carey Price and Craig Anderson. Helmets, gloves, and sticks were everywhere. Here is a screenshot of the penalties from the fight. All of the penalties from the third period could not fit into a screenshot.
At the end of the night multiple players from each team had double digits in penalty minutes. Six Canadiens: Rene Bourque (10), Colby Armstrong (15), Travis Moen (15), Jarred Tinordi (15), Ryan White (17), Francois Bouillon (15), Subban (25). Five Senators: Jared Cowen (19), Chris Phillips (17), Zack Smith (15), Chris Neil (17), and Matt Kassian (15). The third period consisted of 14 fighting majors and eight game misconducts. The benches were scare because of the misconducts and so many players in the penalty box.
Ottawa received goals from Daniel Alfredsson, Kyle Turris, and Jakob Silfverberg. Craig Anderson stopped 33 of 34 shots.
Game four is Tuesday night at 7PM ET.