Ottawa beats Montreal 3-1

It took awhile for the Ottawa Senators to solve Cristobal Huet, though they eventually did beat the Montreal Canadiens goalie for a pair of crucial late goals.

Daniel Alfredsson and Chris Neil scored goals 1:40 apart in the third period to lead host Ottawa to a 3-1 win over Montreal on Saturday.

Huet, who stopped Alfredsson on a penalty shot in the second, came within 5:10 of recording his second shutout in as many starts before the Senators captain tied it at 1-1 with his 12th goal of the season.

Alfredsson took Dany Heatley's pass from the right side and beat Huet with a shot from the slot.

"You've just got to play smart and you can't force things," Alfredsson said. "If you start thinking, 'Oh my God, what's going to happen if we don't win?', that's when you get in trouble. You go on instinct, you go from what the coaches have told you to do out there and do the little things right. We knew we were going to create chances."

Neil gave Ottawa the lead when he beat Huet with a shot from the right faceoff circle with 3:30 left for his second goal.

"You could feel the momentum changing in the third period and we just had our foot on the gas pedal and kept going," Neil said.

Alfredsson added an empty-net goal for his 13th of the season -- his fourth in three games -- as the Senators improved to 14-2-0. Ottawa lost 4-1 to Washington on Thursday to end its team-record eight-game winning streak.

"Overall, I thought it was a heck of a game," Alfredsson said. "It was very uptempo and both goalies played really well. Both teams gave it all they had out there and we were really lucky to come out on top."