Brendan Gallagher #11 of the Montreal Canadiens shoots the puck past Robin Lehner #40 of the Ottawa Senators to score during the NHL game at the Bell Centre on December 20, 2014 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images
Brendan Gallagher broke a tie with a second-period goal as the Montreal Canadiens closed out a five-game homestand with a 4-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.
Brandon Prust, Tomas Plekanec and Alex Galchenyuk also scored for Montreal (21-11-2), which went 4-1-0 at home and begins a four-game road trip Tuesday against the Islanders in New York. The Canadiens had a 29-25 shot advantage.
Erik Condra scored for Ottawa, which was coming off a 6-2 win at home over Anaheim on Friday night. The Senators are 3-2-1 since Dave Cameron replaced Paul MacLean as head coach.
Fate smiled on the Senators as they opened the scoring short-handed 2:50 into the game. Montreal's Sven Andrighetto fell at the Ottawa blue-line, allowing Condra to skate in and fire a harmless looking wrist shot that got through Carey Price and dropped in the crease. Condra poked it in for the goal.
The Canadiens got it back at 6:38 when Prust had a harmless looking shot of his own from the right circle and it got between Robin Lehner and the post before falling just over the goal-line.
A three-on-two rush saw the puck go from Max Pacioretty to Galchenyuk and then Gallagher who shot the puck into an open side 7:30 into the second period.
The Canadiens added two late goals. Plekanec swept a puck in off the far post from the edge of the crease on a power play at 16:50 of the third and Galchenyuk banged in Alexei Emelin's pass at 17:34.
Ottawa heads to Washington for a game Monday night.
Notes — Pacioretty was in the Montreal lineup despite leaving Thursday's game against Anaheim and going to hospital with what looked like a serious injury. . . Lars Eller returned after missing two weeks with an upper-body injury, while American Hockey League call-up Andrighetto bumped Michael Bournival to the press box. Joey MacDonald backed-up Price with Dustin Tokarski on a conditioning sting with the Hamilton Bulldogs, the Canadiens AHL affiliate. . . With Curtis Lazar loaned to the Canada's world junior team, Jean-Gabriel Pageau dressed for the Sens. Ottawa listed defenceman Patrick Wiercioch as a scratch. Chris Neil and Marc Methot are injured. . . The Vanier Cup champion University of Montreal Carabins were feted before the game. After the game, Montreal re-assigned goaltender Joey MacDonald to the Bulldogs.