Canadian NHL roundup: Senators shut out Habs in pre-season finale
Oilers top Flames on Yamamoto's pair; Leafs fall to Red Wings; Canucks' offence sputters again
Matt Duchene had a goal and an assist as the Ottawa Senators beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-0 on Saturday night in the final game of the pre-season for both teams.
The Senators wrapped up the pre-season with a 2-4-0 record, while the Canadiens were 4-3-0.
Tom Pyatt and Bobby Ryan also scored for the Senators, while Craig Anderson stopped 19 shots at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Montreal goalie Carey Price allowed three goals on 21 shots in two periods. Antti Niemi stopped 10 shots in the third period.
Watch highlights of Senators vs. Canadiens:
Earlier in the day, Senators head coach Guy Boucher told reporters the team would be starting the regular season with the 13 forwards that remain, including rookie Brady Tkachuk and Alex Formenton.
Formenton has been impressive since the start of camp and had a great chance in the third period, but was robbed by Niemi.
Decisions remain to be made on the blueline as the Senators are unsure whether they will carry seven or eight defencemen. A battle remains between Ben Harpur, Maxime Lajoie and Christian Jaros.
The Senators open the season Thursday as they host the Chicago Blackhawks, while the Canadiens start their campaign Wednesday in Toronto.
Oilers come back against Flames
Kailer Yamamoto celebrated his 20th birthday on Saturday with two goals, including the winner, to lift the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-3 pre-season win over the Calgary Flames.
Yamamoto put another exclamation mark on his bid to land a job on right wing with the Oilers, scoring his fifth and six goals in the six pre-season games he's played.
"Especially on my birthday. It makes it that much better," said Yamamoto before the Oilers took off for Germany, where they will wrap up their pre-season with an exhibition game against the Cologne Sharks on Wednesday.
Watch Yamamoto's pair of goals:
Connor McDavid and Jujhar Khaira also scored for the Oilers, who improved to 6-1 on their exhibition schedule.
Johnny Gaudreau, Sam Bennett and Elias Lindholm scored for Calgary.
Khaira, pencilled in for third-line duty with Ryan Strome and Jesse Puljujarvi this season, made the most of some power-play time when he put the Oilers up 1-0 in the first period. Khaira beat Mike Smith high to the stick side 3:37 in for his first goal of the pre-season.
It was all Calgary for the rest of the period as Gaudreau, Bennett and Lindholm beat Cam Talbot for a 3-1 lead. Gaudreau tapped home a rebound on a power play to tie it 1-1, Bennett had a shot deflect off Matt Benning and in, and Lindholm took a stretch pass from Mark Giordano and made it 3-1 at 18:02.
Leafs lose to Red Wings
In Detroit, Jonathan Bernier made 25 saves to lead the Red Wings over the Maple Leafs.
Dominic Turgeon, Vili Saarijarvi, Martin Frk, Libor Sulak and Matt Puempel scored for Detroit, which finished 7-1-0 in the preseason.
Leafs struggle against Red Wings in Detroit:
Curtis McElhinney allowed all five Detroit goals on 37 shots, and Carl Grundstrom scored the Maple Leafs' lone goal. Toronto went 5-2-0.
Canucks scoring woes on display in loss to Coyotes
The Vancouver Canucks scoring woes continued as they closed out their pre-season with a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Arizona Coyotes.
Nikolay Goldobin was the lone Canuck to score in front of a sold-out crowd at Prospera Place in Kelowna, B.C.
Watch highlights from the Canucks' 4-1 loss:
Derek Stepan and Michael Grabner both had a goal and an assist for the Coyotes (4-2-0), while Christian Fischer and Brad Richardson also found the back of the net.
Jacob Markstrom made 12 saves for Vancouver (1-6-0) and Darcy Kuemper had 15 stops for Arizona.
The Canucks were 0 for 2 on the power play, while the Coyotes were 1 for 5 with the man advantage.
Coming off a 6-0 shutout in Edmonton against the Oilers on Wednesday, the Canucks didn't get on the scoresheet until Goldobin converted on a pass to the slot from Brock Boeser to beat Kuemper with 9:11 to play in the third period.