Pageau fuels Ottawa’s win
Scores 4 goals in 6-5, 2OT victory
OTTAWA — Jean-Gabriel Pageau got his fourth goal of the game in the second overtime after scoring twice late in regulation, lifting the Ottawa Senators past the visiting New York Rangers, 6-5, in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Ottawa leads the best-ofseven series, 2-0, despite trailing by two goals after Brady Skjei’s score with 14:50 left in the third. Pageau cut it to 5-4 with 3:19 left in the period, then tied it with 1:02 remaining.
Pageau scored again 2:54 into the second overtime, snapping in a shot in a 2on-1 rush alongside Tommy Wingels. Pageau is the first Senators player with four goals in a playoff game.
Marc Methot and Mark Stone also scored for Ottawa, and Craig Anderson had 43 saves.
Skjei had two goals for New York and Michael Grabner, Chris Kreider and Derek Stepan also scored. Henrik Lundqvist stopped 28 shots.
The series heads to New York for Game 3 Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
Ottawa lost Clarke MacArthur to injury and won despite letting Grabner and Stepan score shorthanded.
The Senators lead a playoff series, 2-0, for only the second time in team history and first since the 2007 Eastern Conference final against Buffalo.
The Senators have never swept a playoff series.
Skjei scored a few minutes after Stone cut New York’s lead to 4-3. Skjei broke up an odd-man rush, took a feed from Brendan Smith in transition and fired in his fourth goal of the playoffs.
Pageau rallied the Senators with a pair of tip-in goals, the first on a point shot from Zack Smith, and the second on Kyle Turris’ shot from the left faceoff circle.
After his overtime score, Pageau slid into the end boards, skated to the left corner and was swarmed by teammates.
Pageau, 24, has two career postseason hat tricks. He scored 12 goals in 82 games for Ottawa this season, and this was his first career overtime score.
Canadian Tire Centre appeared near capacity after more than 2,000 seats were left empty two nights earlier in the opener.