Harvey-Pinard scores twice, but Canadiens can’t break retro jersey curse

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The curse of the reverse retro jerseys continued Tuesday night as Brady Tkachuk scored with 1:18 remaining to give the Ottawa Senators a 5-4 win over the Canadiens at the Bell Centre.

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The Canadiens are now winless in seven games (0-6-1) while wearing the powder blue jerseys.

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Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, who started the new year in Laval, continued his bid for regular employment in the NHL when he twice brought the Canadiens back from a one-goal deficit in the third period. The seventh-round draft choice has scored five goals in seven games since being recalled from the Rocket.

Harvey-Pinard knotted the game at 4-4 two minutes after Tim Stutzle put Ottawa ahead 4-3 when he scored his second goal of the night on a power play at 12:14.

On too many occasions this season, the Canadiens have had to chase the game after falling behind early.

That was the case Tuesday as the Senators grabbed a 2-0 lead before the game was four minutes old.

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Claude Giroux, the 34-year-old veteran who has found the Fountain of Youth in Ottawa, opened the scoring when he collected his 20th of the season at 2:57. Less than a minute later, Stützle made it 2-0 when he was sent in alone by Mathieu Joseph for his 21st goal.

It could have been worse.

Shortly after the Stützle goal, Jake Allen made a skate save to thwart Joseph on a breakaway and later in the period, he stopped Ridly Greig on a breakaway.

The Canadiens failed to get a shot on their first power play, but cut the Ottawa lead in half when Kirby Dach’s persistence paid off with a power-play goal at 13:20. Anton Forsberg, who shut out the Canadiens on Saturday, made an initial save on Mike Hoffman’s shot and stopped Nick Suzuki on the rebound. Dach joined the play from the left side of the net and tucked the puck under Forsberg’s blocker.

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The teams exchanged power-play goals in the second period.

Alex DeBrincat converted a cross-ice pass from Stützle to score from the right faceoff circle at 16:23, but Mike Hoffman beat the buzzer when he scored on a shot from the right faceoff circle with five seconds remaining.

Fight aficionados were deprived of a main-event battle between Tkachuk and Arber Xhekaj as time ran out in the second period. Xhekaj got in a few shots before the linesmen stepped in, but there were no penalties on the play.

The Canadiens will now get a chance to rest and, in some cases, recover, when they begin their bye week Wednesday. They will return to practice on Feb. 9 and will play two afternoon games on Super Bowl weekend. The New York Islanders visit the Bell Center on Feb. 11 and Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers will be in town on Feb. 12.

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