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Heatley helps Senators double up Canadiens

Nov 20, 2007 - 4:55 AM MONTREAL (Ticker) -- The Bell Centre faithful gave Larry Robinson a prolonged ovation prior to Monday's game. The Ottawa Senators made certain they quieted the crowd shortly thereafter.

Dany Heatley had a goal and set up two others and Jason Spezza had three assists as the Senators defeated the Montreal Canadiens, 4-2, on a night when Robinson's No. 19 sweater was raised to the rafters.

Heatley snapped a six-game goal-less drought by recording the eventual game-winning goal with 5:25 remaining in the second period to give the Senators a 3-1 lead.

"We haven't had a very good effort in the first period for the last three or four games," Heatley said. "We wanted to come out strong, that was a huge goal by Patty (Eaves) to get us going and then we played pretty well from there.

"We had a little hiccup in the second with penalties, but that third goal was a big one - and we played pretty strong in the third."

After serving a minor penalty, Heatley joined the play in the offensive end and accepted a feed from Chris Neil and deposited the puck behind goaltender Cristobal Huet.

Chris Kelly scored his fourth goal of the season just 76 seconds into the third period to give Ottawa a three-goal bulge.

"We created some offense, had some good chances," Montreal captain Saku Koivu said. "But as a team, they wait for mistakes - they don't even have to be big mistakes - but they get 2-on-1s and 3-on-2s. At the same time, they don't give you a lot of room in the neutral zone."

Christopher Higgins tallied just over three minutes later to bring Montreal back within two goals at 4-2, but the Canadiens could not get anything more past Martin Gerber.

The Ottawa netminder made 36 saves to post his third victory over Montreal this season. Gerber is now 7-1-0 in his career against the Canadiens, including 3-0-0 at the Bell Centre.

"It was pretty bad, I think all four goals were in the slot," Higgins said. "That was an area we didn't want them to go. They were skating through without getting checked or their sticks lifted, and they were slipping checks."

Patrick Eaves opened the scoring with a power-play goal just 3:47 into the first period. Captain Daniel Alfredsson fed Eaves at the goal mouth, and the former first-round selection of the 2003 draft quickly deposited the puck inside the right post.

Chris Neil doubled the Senators' advantage just over five minutes later.

Heatley one-armed a pass to Spezza just outside the left post. Spezza flipped the puck to Neil, who beat Huet to give the Senators a 2-0 advantage.

"We've been playing pretty consistently," Alfredsson said. "Tonight, we got off to a fast start and that helps. Montreal had their chances but Martin (Gerber) came up big."

Guillaume Latendresse halved the Canadiens' deficit midway through the second period.

Latendresse scored his second goal in as many games by backhanding a shot deflected off Gerber's right pad and into the net at 10:18 of the second period. It was his fourth goal of the season.

"You can't play a run-and-gun type of game with these guys," Higgins said. "That team just has too much skill."

Huet finished with 25 saves.