Senators’ Pageau gets 4th goal in 2OT
OTTAWA, Ontario — JeanGabriel Pageau got his fourth goal of the game in the second overtime after scoring twice late in regulation, lifting the Ottawa Senators over the New York Rangers 6-5 on Saturday in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Ottawa leads the 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 OT, snapping in a shot during a 2-on-1 rush alongside Tommy Wingels. Pageau is the first Senator ever 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 on Tuesday night.
Ottawa lost Clarke MacArthur to injury and won despite letting Grabner and Stepan score shorthanded. It leads 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 postseason series.
Skjei scored a few minutes after Stone cut New York’s lead to 4-3. Skjei broke up an oddman 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 OT score, Pageau slid into the end boards, skated to the left corner and was swarmed by teammates. Wingels stopped to scoop the puck out of the goal before joining the pile.
The 24-year-old Pageau 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.
After Erik Karlsson’s unlikely tally late in regulation lifted Ottawa in Game 1, the Senators came out flying early in Game 2. Canadian Tire Centre appeared near capacity after more than 2,000 seats were left empty in the opener two nights earlier.
Ottawa had three straight power-play chances early, but it didn’t even manage a shot on goal in that time, although Karlsson did hit a post. Mike Hoffman fired a sloppy pass that was picked off by Kevin Hayes at one point and MacArthur dropped another feed to no one in particular.
PENGUINS 6, CAPITALS 2
In Washington, with Sidney Crosby continuing his brilliance for the Penguins and Braden Holtby not having the same response in net for the Capitals, the secondround series between the NHL’s top teams has tilted in Pittsburgh’s favor.
Crosby set up two goals and the Penguins chased Holtby in a 6-2 victory Saturday night in Game 2, taking a commanding 2-0 lead back home. Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 34 of the 36 shots he faced in his second consecutive strong performance and Phil Kessel and Jake Guentzel scored twice to put the Presidents’ Trophy winners in a historically difficult hole.
Teams that have lost the first two games of a best-of-seven series at home are 18-69 (21.7 percent) all time in the Stanley Cup playoffs, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. To attempt their own comeback, the Capitals might turn back to Holtby for Game 3 Monday night in Pittsburgh after backup Philipp Grubauer allowed two goals on the first four shots he faced in relief.
Holtby had surrendered three goals on 14 shots before getting the hook after the second period Saturday. The goals by Matt Cullen (short-handed), Kessel and Guentzel weren’t all Holtby’s fault because of miscues and odd-man rushes, but the reigning Vezina Trophy winner didn’t make the timely save his team needed.
Grubauer allowed goals to Kessel and Evgeni Malkin early in the third, but the Penguins continued to pour it on and got an emptynetter from Guentzel in the final minute.
After outshooting the Penguins 35-21 in their Game 1 loss, the Capitals came out firing with 10 of the first 11 shots. They dominated territorially and tested Fleury but couldn’t crack him as the teams went through another first period without a goal.
Complaining of no power plays in Game 1, the Capitals did nothing with their two first-period chances and gave up the first goal on the third early in the second. Cullen blocked Kevin Shattenkirk’s shot from the point, blew around Washington’s big trade-deadline acquisition and slid the puck between Holtby’s legs for the short-handed goal 1:15 into the second even as T.J. Oshie hooked him from behind.