Lehkonen, Hammond lead Habs to fifth straight win

HKN-Canadiens-Senators (1st Writethru)

Habs extend win streak to five on Lehkonen pair

Lisa Wallace

OTTAWA, Feb 26 The Canadian Press -

Artturi Lehkonen had a pair of goals Saturday night in the Montreal Canadiens' 2-1 win over the Ottawa Senators to extend their win streak to five games, but everyone was talking about Andrew Hammond.

Hammond stopped 26 shots for the Canadiens in his return to the Canadian Tire Centre after playing 55 games for the Senators between 2014 and 2016. The 34-year-old is best known for his outstanding run to the playoffs in 2015 where he posted a 20-1-2 record.

Hammond was traded to Colorado in 2017 and has been playing in the American Hockey League for the most part until he was traded to Montreal (13-33-7) a couple of weeks ago. Last weekend he played his first game in the NHL in nearly four years.

Fans in Ottawa clearly haven’t forgotten about the “Hamburglar,” as he was known, and threw burgers on the ice following a video tribute.

“I have no animosity or anything like that towards them, but I think it’s natural any time you’re playing your former team, you’d like to win,” said Hammond. “Obviously, very happy that we were able to do that tonight. Just a really, I thought, grinding game by us. You’ve got to win lots of different ways. It was fun to be a part of.

“They came in waves at times, but for the most part I think we kept them to the outside and made my job very easy.”

There are only a couple of Senators left who played with Hammond and Colin White, who scored the lone goal for Ottawa (19-27-5), was one of them.

“It's great to see him back in the NHL,” said White. “He’s doing great and played a great game.”

It was a momentous evening for White as well, as he made his season debut