MacArthur puts Senators into second round
Former Tiger scores OT winner in Game 6 win over Bruins
BOSTON It wasn’t long ago that Clarke MacArthur was contemplating retirement. His decision to stick around for a playoff push paid off in a big way.
MacArthur, who missed all but the last four regular-season games after suffering a concussion in training camp, scored the winner on a power play 6:30 into overtime Sunday as the Ottawa Senators beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 to win their Eastern Conference quarter-final series in six games.
The 32-year-old MacArthur sat out 156 regular-season games in total over the two seasons because of multiple concussions and had moved to Florida to prepare for retirement.
“There’s nothing like living in the NHL and living in these playoffs,” MacArthur said. “(Retirement is) something everyone’s going to have to deal with one day, but I want to stretch it out as long as I can obviously.”
After a 3-2 double-overtime loss to the Bruins in Game 5 on Friday, the Senators weren’t facing a must-win game — but MacArthur made sure the series ended in six anyway.
MacArthur’s goal, his second of the post-season, followed a holding penalty to Boston right-winger David Pastrnak. MacArthur scored on the rebound of Bobby Ryan’s shot 36 seconds into the power play.
Ryan and Kyle Turris also scored for the Senators and Craig Anderson made 28 saves.
It was the fourth overtime game of the series. Every game was decided by one goal.
Ottawa will face the New York Rangers in the conference semifinals. New York beat Montreal 3-1 on Saturday to win its quarter-final series in six games. The Senators won two of three regular-season meetings against the Rangers this year.
“We’re going to use this (off) time well and we’re going to prepare to play New York here in the second round, and we’ve got to keep pushing forward,” said defenceman Erik Karlsson, who admitted after the game that he played the entire series with two hairline fractures in his left heel.
“I feel like we have a strong group, we have a deep group.”
Drew Stafford and Patrice Bergeron scored for Boston. Tuukka Rask had 26 stops.