National Hockey League

Sunday's best: With Price, a bit of luck, Canadiens oust Senators

Published Apr. 27, 2015 12:03 a.m. ET

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Best game: Montreal 2, Ottawa 0. Ottawa's 21-3-3 stretch run to make the playoffs was the best story leading into the postseason. The Senators were trying to write an even better one by winning two games after falling behind 3-0 in their series against Montreal. Ottawa threw everything it had at Montreal goalie Carey Price in Game 6 on Sunday in Ottawa, rifling 43 shots on net. But Price held up and the Senators' luck finally ran out in the form of two pivotal calls — a Montreal goal that may have been the product of a high stick and an Ottawa goal that was whistled dead too soon (see below). "This team has been a real treat since I took over," coach Dave Cameron, who was hired in December to turn around a struggling club, told the Ottawa Sun. "We made some steps. This is a tough business, tough league, we'll get over it ... and feel good about what we accomplished."

Best stat: 6 in 6. One year after posting a career-high four points in Game 6 of the first round to force a Game 7 in Colorado, Minnesota's Zach Parise scored two goals Sunday to help the Wild avoid Game 7 in St. Louis and advance to the conference semifinals against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Best at being worst, Jake Allen, G, St. Louis. Midway through the second period, NBC's Brian Engblom asked Blues coach Ken Hitchcock how close he was to pulling Allen after he allowed a soft, short-side goal from an impossible angle to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead. Hitchcock shook his head and said you have to stick with a young guy who is learning. Thirty seconds later, Allen allowed another softie between his pads and Hitchcock decided that detention was a better option than school, yanking Allen in favor of Brian Elliott. Allen wasn't awful in this series with a 2.02 goals-against average (although his save percentage was .904), but he picked a bad day to have his worst performance as the Blues were eliminated in the first round for the third straight year.

Best luck: Montreal. You can start with Gallagher's goal. You can end with a quick whistle that wiped out an apparent game-tying goal by Ottawa's Jean-Gabriel Pageau. With the Sens trailing Montreal 1-0 in the second period, Ottawa got pressure off a rush. Montreal's Price stopped Mark Borowiecki's shot but couldn't control the rebound. From his stomach, Pageau knocked the puck into the net, but the referee had already blown the whistle because he lost sight of the puck.

Best impending introspection: St. Louis. Sunday's loss in Minnesota means the St. Louis Blues have won one playoff series in their last 14 seasons. Whom do you blame? Maybe GM Doug Armstrong should take the fall. His trades for goalies Jaroslav Halak and Ryan Miller didn't pan out, Allen didn't get the job done vs. the Wild and key offseason acquisition Paul Stastny had one goal and zero assists in this six-game series. Maybe coach Hitchcock should lose his job. In his last six postseasons with Philadelphia, Columbus and St. Louis, Hitchcock is 12-25 overall and 1-6 in those series. Here's a third thought. At some point, the core players on the Blues must be held accountable for their failures. St. Louis scored 14 goals in this series and Vladimir Tarasenko had six of them, while Patrik Berglund had two. Captain David Backes, Alexander Steen, T.J. Oshie and Jaden Schwartz each had one goal. Backes has five goals in 29 postseason games since 2009, and the Blues are 10-19 in those games. Oshie has five goals in 30 games, and Steen has six. St. Louis led all Western Conference playoff teams in goals per game during the regular season at 2.92. That number fell to 2.33 in the playoffs. Sure, Allen gave up a couple of softies, but he's part of a bigger picture.

Best quote, via the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Two terrible goals again. I just let us down. Just two bad goals that can't go in at this time of year." — Blues goalie Allen, after allowing two soft goals that got him pulled and helped the Wild finish off the Blues 4-1 in Game 6.

Best thing to look forward to Monday: New York Islanders at Washington, Game 7. The Capitals and Islanders will meet in a Game 7 for the first time since the Easter Epic on April 18, 1987, when New York won 4-3 in quadruple overtime. That game is the longest Game 7 in Stanley Cup playoffs history and one of two series-deciding games to need more than three overtime periods. It was the first game since 1971 to go to a third overtime and the first since 1951 to go to a fourth.

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