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Souray sparks Canadiens' comeback over Senators

Jan 30, 2007 - 5:25 AM MONTREAL (Ticker) -- Whenever the opposition commits a penalty, Sheldon Souray seems to find an extra burst of adrenaline.

Souray scored his 14th power-play goal of the season and Tomas Plekanec added a shorthanded tally as the Montreal Canadiens won for the third time in four games with a 3-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators.

The franchise leader for power-play tallies in a single season, Souray ranks third in the league in goals with the man-advantage. He ignited the Canadiens after an early deficit as they raised their record to 3-1-1 against Ottawa this season.

"These are teams that want to knock us out of the playoffs," Souray said. "They don't want us there and we're working to be there and have our game in the shape we want when we get there.

"Nothing is going to come easy for us anymore. It's a good thing we showed some character and some grit, and came out of it with a win."

After Chris Phillips scored at the 52-second mark for the Senators, Souray scored his 17th goal of the campaign midway through the second period with a one-timer that beat goaltender Ray Emery to the glove side.

Blue-liner Mark Streit gave Montreal a 2-1 lead just 66 seconds later with his first tally in nine games and fourth of the season by taking Andrei Markov's long pass of the boards, skating in and sliding the puck between Emery's pads.

"I saw Markov intercept the puck on the blue line and I looked him in the eye," Streit said. "He saw me and he knew what I was going to do and I knew what he was going to do. ... I had to get there as quick as possible and hope I had enough time to go to the net and score."

"We were a little sloppy getting the puck into their end," Senators defenseman Wade Redden said. "We didn't have much play in their end in the second. They got the momentum going and got a few goals."

Despite Souray's high-sticking penalty moments later, Plekanec widened the margin with 6:41 left in the middle session with a backhander inside the right goalpost.

"I don't think I've changed my game that much," Plekanec said. "The puck is going my way and going in the net. Maybe a little bit, but I won't change my game that much."

Making his 20th appearance of the season, netminder David Aebischer made 26 saves, including a sprawling glove stop of Jason Spezza's shot from the slot with nine minutes left.

"It just feels good when everyone is contributing," Souray said. "Our power play is contributing and our goaltending is great. "

Emery recorded 25 saves and fell to 22-12-1 for Ottawa, which lost for the second time in nine outings.

"I thought both teams played pretty hard," Spezza said. "We had a lot of chances. Then we started to run a little bit trying to score a goal and tie it up. We just didn't bury it. That was the difference tonight."

"We're not going to win all of them," Redden said. "They had their backs to the wall. We knew they were going to be hungry and it was disappointing when we got the start that we didn't keep at them. We had some chances. Aebischer had to make some saves, but it just didn't go for us tonight."

Before the game, the Canadiens retired the No. 29 to honor Hall of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden, who played on six Stanley Cup championship teams and won five Vezina Trophies in eight seasons from 1971-1979.