Senators steal home ice to open Eastern Conference final against Penguins

PITTSBURGH The regular season was a bundle of frustration for Ottawa winger Bobby Ryan. He was snakebitten. He was hurt.

He’s exorcizing all of that in the playoffs.

“It felt great, obviously, to come through in an important and crucial moment,” Ryan said Saturday night after he scored at 4:59 of overtime to give the Senators a 2-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final at PPG Paints Arena.

Ottawa carried a one-goal lead on Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s tally through most of the game, before Evgeni Malkin tied it late in regulation.

Ryan had 13 goals and a career low of 25 points in 62 games during the season. He now has five goals and 10 points in 13 playoff games.

“When you’re an offensive player and you’re doing all the right things but you’re not finishing -- and that’s what it was with Bobby — he just wasn’t finishing and it gets to be a mental block and you start thinking you’re not doing the right things,” Senators coach Guy Boucher said.

“For me, now it’s the finishing part.”

On Saturday’s winner, Ryan, who also had the lone assist on Pageau’s goal, came out of a tangle along the right-wing boards after getting the puck past Pittsburgh defenceman Olli Maatta for a short breakaway and roofed a shot past goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

“I was kind of lucky that the puck found me,” Ryan said. “When you get in there, you look for something instinctual, some kind of move. I felt fortunate it found the net.”

Fleury finished with 33 saves. Craig Anderson made 27 saves for the Senators, who improved to 6-1 in overtime in the post-season. The Penguins are 1-1 in overtime.

“For the most part, we find that the most fun,” Ottawa centre Kyle Turris said of going to overtime. “Playoffs, it’s so much fun. It’s a blast.”