Ottawa rallies for overtime win
OTTAWA— Mark Stone scored the winner 2:43 into overtime as the Ottawa Senators scored four unanswered goals to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 Tuesday night and keep their playoff hopes alive.
Stone also scored a third-period goal, while Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Mike Hoffman had the others for the Senators (40-26-13), who played their final home game. Andrew Hammond, who is 18-1-2, made 25 saves.
Sidney Crosby and Patric Hornqvist had a goal and an assist each for the Penguins (42-26-11), while Beau Bennett scored his first in 31 games. Marc-Andre Fleury turned away 40 of 44 shots.
The Senators, with 95 points, moved into a tie with the idle Boston Bruins, who hold the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Boston has a game in hand and the tiebreaker between the two teams with more regulation plus overtime wins. Ottawa trails the Penguins, who hold the first wild card spot, by just one point.
Ottawa trailed 3-1 heading into the third period, but cut the deficit to one just 34 seconds in as Stone picked up his 23rd of the season. The goal extended his point streak to seven games with five goals and four assists.
Hammond was pulled for the extra attacker with just over two minutes remaining. Ottawa took advantage as Hoffman tied the game at 18:12 to send the sellout crowd of 20,263 into a frenzy.
Ottawa outshot Pittsburgh 18-3 in the third period.
Down 3-0, the Senators came out firing in the second period and outshot the Penguins16-13. Ottawa had a number of good scoring chances, but Fleury was solid.
The Senators finally got on the board with a short-handed goal at the 14-minute mark of the second as Pageau’s rebound went in off Derrick Pouliot.
The Penguins did most of the damage in the first 20 minutes as they jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Crosby opened the scoring off the opening faceoff as he took a pass from Hornqvist and easily beat Hammond.