Chris Higgins scores the first of his three goals on Alex Auld in Tuesday's 4-0 Canadiens win. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

The Montreal Canadiens entered Tuesday's showdown with the Ottawa Senators on a modest two-game losing streak, prompting criticism from their own head coach.

Guy Carbonneau chastised his players for their "lack of effort, lack of concentration, lack of focus, lack of everything" in Saturday's 6-3 loss at Toronto.

But the players responded with a spirited performance in Tuesday's 4-0 victory over the visiting Senators in front of 21,273 raucous fans at the Bell Centre.

"The best 60 minutes we have played this year," Carbonneau said.

Chris Higgins registered a hat trick and Guillaume Latendresse had the other goal for the Canadiens (9-2-2), who improved to 5-1-0 on home ice this season.

It marked the first NHL hat trick for Higgins.

"The hat trick was definitely for my mom," he said. "My dad gets a lot of credit for where I am right now, but I would just like to say, 'Sue, thank you.'"

"It was a good game for Chris," Carbonneau claimed. "He has got to remember it and play like this every night."

Josh Gorges contributed two assists and Carey Price kicked aside all 28 shots he faced for his first shutout this season and fourth in the NHL.

"It was tough to lose a game like that, 6-3, especially on a Saturday in Toronto, but I thought our guys did a great job of bouncing back," Price said. "This was the best complete game we played all year."

Canadiens captain Saku Koivu skated with reckless abandon, pouncing on loose pucks and creating several scoring chances in a classic display of leadership by example.

Koivu chalked up one assist, and it might well have been more had he buried Tomas Plekanec's pass at the left post on a 2-on-1 break or had Higgins converted his pass off a splendid spin move at the right post.

"We know when we're playing our best and we know when we're not doing the things we're supposed to, even when we're winning," Koivu said. "Nobody had to tell us after Saturday's game that we didn't play well."

Alex Auld stopped 27 of 31 shots for the Senators (6-7-2), notably a glove save on a short-handed breakaway by Mathieu Dandenault with six minutes remaining.

"These are big games for us," Senators forward Jason Spezza said. "These guys are ahead of us in the standings and they're in our division and they're a real good team to match up against to see how your team is doing, so it is obviously disappointing."

Senators forward Jarkko Ruutu racked up 19 minutes in penalties, including a 10-minute misconduct late in the third period.

Ruutu, who received a charging major for elbowing Maxime Lapierre earlier in the game, waved to the jeering crowd as he left for the dressing room.

"They cheered for me, so why not thank them," Ruutu said. "I want to be black or white.

"Love me or hate me. I don't want to be a gray area."

'A really sloppy power play'

Montreal opened the scoring 7:22 into the first period as Koivu flicked the puck over a scrambling Christoph Schubert to spring Higgins, who fooled Auld high to the stick side for a short-handed goal, his second of the season.

Montreal applied tremendous pressure on a penalty kill late in the second period, with Koivu and Alex Kovalev putting on a stickhandling clinic short-handed.

Refusing to relinquish the puck in the offensive zone, Koivu and Kovalev repeatedly buzzed the net as precious seconds ticked off the clock on Ottawa's power play.

"That was kind of the turning point," Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson said. "A really sloppy power play."

The Canadiens had returned to full strength for 19 seconds when Higgins scored his second goal of the contest.

Ryan O'Byrne's slapshot was stopped by Auld, but Sergei Kostitsyn slid the rebound across the crease as he was knocked down in front, and Higgins swept it in the open side for his third at 14:11.

Montreal increased its lead 88 seconds later when Robert Lang outfoxed Senators forward Dean McAmmond on a faceoff and drew the puck back to Latendresse, who beat Auld high to the glove side for his second with 4:21 left in the period.

"It was a game we gave away in the second period," Senators head coach Craig Hartsburg said. "We had momentum going.

"We had a power play and we scrambled and then they scored. That was the story of the game."

Price held the Senators at bay, sticking with sniper Dany Heatley on a breakaway at the 12½-minute mark of the third.

"Other than that breakaway, I don't think they generated a whole lot," Price said.

Higgins completed the scoring — and the hat trick — on a breakaway with 3:25 remaining, firing high to Auld's stick side for his third tally on the night and fourth overall.

"I hit the post a few times [trying to notch a hat trick]," Higgins said. "For it to go in was nice, especially here in front of our fans."

With files from the Canadian Press