Pageau’s 4th goal wins it for Senators
Jean-Gabriel Pageau might not have seen the goal that capped his “legendary game” for the Ottawa Senators.
Pageau scored a careerhigh four goals, including the winner 2:54 into the second overtime, to lift the Senators to a 6-5 victory over the visiting New York Rangers on Saturday, giving Ottawa a 2-0 lead in the best-ofseven series.
“I think I closed my eyes when I shot and thankfully it went in,” Pageau said of the winner. “I was on a cloud and it's a moment I'll never forget.”
The 24-year-old Ottawa native also scored twice in the final 3:19 to tie the score. He tipped Zack Smith's shot past Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist to pull the Senators to 5-4 and then tied it by deflecting a shot by Kyle Turris with 1:02 remaining.
“That last deflection I don't even know how he did that,” Lundqvist said. “The way he angled the stick he didn't even know he hit the net I think.”
Pageau scored again 2:54 into the second OT, snapping in a shot during a twoon-one rush alongside Tommy Wingels. Pageau is the first Senator ever with four goals in a playoff game.
“I thought his quota was full,” captain Erik Karlsson said when asked if Pageau was his pick for the doubleOT winner.
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.
“It's just great to see him get rewarded: four-goal game, overtime winner. It's just a legendary game,” teammate Dion Phaneuf said.
The Senators have a 2-0 series lead for just the second time in franchise history, and first since the 2007 Eastern Conference final vs. Buffalo. They have never swept a four-game series.
Marc Methot and Mark Stone also scored for Ottawa, and Craig Anderson had 43 saves.
Brady Skjei had two goals for New York, his second putting the Rangers up two 5:10 into the third period. Michael Grabner, Chris Kreider and Derek Stepan also scored and Lundqvist stopped 28 shots.
“We played well enough to win this game, there's no question about it so it's really tough to lose this one,” Lundqvist said. “Clearly they've gotten the bounces in the first two games. We've just got to go home and regroup. It's a really tough loss being up a couple goals, especially late in the game.”
Pittsburgh 6, at Washington 2: Phil Kessel scored twice, Sidney Crosby set up more goals and the Penguins chased Braden Holtby on the way to a victory over the Capitals in Game 2 that gave them a commanding 2-0 lead in their secondround series.
Marc-Andre Fleury was brilliant again in stopping 34 of the 36 shots he faced for Pittsburgh, which also got goals by Matt Cullen, Jake Guentzel and Evgeni Malkin. The Penguins scored three goals on 14 shots on Holtby, who was pulled in favor of Philipp Grubauer after the second period.
Grubauer didn't fare much better, allowing two goals on nine shots. Matt Niskanen and Nicklas Backstrom scored for the Capitals, who outshot the Penguins, 36-23.