Hackett's 34 saves not enough to lead Habs to win

OTTAWA (AP) -- The Ottawa Senators needed a big goal from one of their less-heralded players to get by Jeff Hackett and the Montreal Canadiens.

 Chris Phillips scored his first goal of the season late in the second period to lift Ottawa to a 3-2 victory over Montreal on Thursday night.

Phillips, a defenseman held to two assists through 16 games, scored 18:33 into the second to break a 2-2 tie. He had gone 21 regular-season games without a goal, dating to last season.

"It was a great feeling that I was able to get it in, and to contribute,'' said Phillips, who had six goals in 63 games last season. "It's never fun to see that big zero beside your name.''

Hackett made 34 saves, including a remarkable pad stop on Marian Hossa with just over eight minutes left to keep the Canadiens within one.

"He played a great game, but tonight we got him beat a couple of times and that was the key for us,'' Hossa said. "He likes to play against us. He seems like he's on top of his game.''

Hackett lost for just the second time in 10 games (5-2-2) as he made his second start in as many nights in place of injured goalie Jose Theodore.

Theodore, last season's MVP, missed the two-game road trip because of a hip flexor injury sustained Monday in a win over Pittsburgh.

Petr Schastlivy and Daniel Alfredsson also scored for Ottawa, unbeaten in five games (4-0-1).

Hossa extended his point streak to eight games with an assist on Alfredsson's power-play goal in the second. He has six goals and six assists during the stretch.

"It feels good,'' Hossa said. "We're working hard and we've been pretty lucky so far on the power play. We could be a little better 5-on-5, but so far, so good.''

Andrei Markov -- who scored the overtime winner in Montreal's 3-2 victory at Pittsburgh on Wednesday-- and Joe Juneau scored for the Canadiens, who had a three-game win streak snapped.

"This was our fifth game in seven nights, and I could see the energy was not there,'' Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said. "When the energy's not there, sometimes you make some bad decisions and that's what happened with us tonight. Jeff Hackett played very well for us tonight and gave us a chance to stay in the game.''

Ottawa took a 1-0 lead 14:33 in, but Montreal came back with two goals early in the second period to go ahead.

Markov scored on a power play just 45 seconds into the period to tie it. Juneau scored his third goal at 5:16 when he came around the net, after passing to Andreas Dackell, and knocked in a loose puck after Dackell's shot bounced high over goalie Patrick Lalime.

Alfredsson scored his eighth of the season on a power play 13:22 into the second to tie it at 2.

Lalime stopped Oleg Petrov on a breakaway with 11:04 left.

Game notes
Ottawa outshot Montreal 37-30. ... Five-foot-eight Canadiens RW Donald Audette was flattened when he ran into 6-foot-9 Ottawa D Zdeno Chara 14 minutes into the second period. ... Senators D Shane Hnidy missed the game after he was struck in the left eye with a puck during morning practice. Hnidy, who is not expected to lose vision in the eye, will be sidelined indefinitely.