OT win returns Pens to Final
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins are heading back to the Stanley Cup Final.
Chris Kunitz beat Craig Anderson 5 minutes, 9 seconds into the second overtime to give the defending champions a 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators in Game 7 of the NHL Eastern Conference final Thursday night.
Kunitz scored twice, his first two of the playoffs. Justin Schultz added the other in his return from an upper-body injury, and Matt Murray stopped 28 shots on his 23rd birthday.
The Penguins are trying to become the first team since the Detroit Red Wings in 1998 to win backto-back titles. They will host Western Conference champion Nashville in Game 1 on Monday night.
Mark Stone and Ryan Dzingel scored for Ottawa, which rallied twice to tie it, with Dzingel making it 2-2 with 5:19 left in regulation.
Craig Anderson made 39 saves but couldn’t get a handle on Kunitz’s shot from just outside the left circle.
Ottawa forced a return trip to Pittsburgh — where they lost 7-0 loss in Game 5 on Sunday — by leaning heavily on Anderson in a 2-1 Game 6 victory, putting both teams at odds with history.
The Senators, who now are 0-6 in Game 7s in franchise history, came in 0-for-25 years in winner-take-all games, while the Penguins were 0-7 in Game 7s at home in series in which they also dropped Game 6.
For most of the first 30 minutes, loose pucks hopped over sticks to spoil some scoring opportunities while Anderson and Murray gobbled up the rest.