Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Turris’ OT goal gives Senators series lead over Rangers
Kyle Turris capped Ottawa’s comeback from two deficits and pulled the Senators one win from returning to the Eastern Conference final for the first time in 10 years.
Turris scored 6:28 into overtime to lift the Senators to 5-4 victory over the New York Rangers on Saturday for a 3-2 series lead in their second-round series.
Derick Brassard tied the score with 1:26 left in the third period for Ottawa, which trailed 2-0 just 5½ minutes into the game and 4-3 with 7:12 remaining.
“We’ve talked about not sabotaging ourselves and we were on our way to do that again,” Senators coach Guy Boucher said of the early deficit.
Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman and Tom Pyatt also scored and Craig Anderson stopped 29 shots to help Ottawa get its fifth overtime win of the postseason, including a doubleovertime victory here against the Rangers in Game 2. Erik Karlsson had three assists.
Jesper Fast, Nick Holden, Ryan McDonagh and Jimmy Vesey scored for the Rangers, and Henrik Lundqvist finished with 32 saves.
Michael Grabner appeared to win it for the Rangers less than 5 minutes into overtime, but it was disallowed because his redirection came on a high-stick.
Turris then knocked in the rebound of his own shot through Lundqvist’s five-hole to put the Senators one win away from returning to the conference finals for the first time since 2007.
Game 6 is Tuesday night in New York.
Ottawa erased its early deficit, pulling within one late in the first and scoring 33 seconds apart in the second to take a 3-2 lead on Pyatt’s goal at 8:50.
“You have to have that belief. You’re not going to score the first goal every game. It’s not going to always go your way,” Pyatt said.
McDonagh tied it for the Rangers late in the second and Vesey gave them the lead in the third.