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Senators stun Penguins in overtime, keep playoff dream alive

Senators stun Penguins in overtime, keep playoff dream alive

The Ottawa Senators entered their game vs. Pittsburgh on Tuesday night on a 20-4-4 streak that erased a playoff berth deficit from 14 on Feb. 10 to just two points, chasing three different Eastern Conference foes.

Their first-year goalie, 17-1-2 as a starter, was greeted with an arena full of fans carrying masks with his face on them wearing a Hamburglar mask, a tribute to perhaps the greatest sudden folk hero in franchise history.

None of it mattered if the Senators didn’t beat the Pittsburgh Penguins. If they didn’t take out a struggling foe (3-8-1), the only team they’re chasing on their schedule in their final three games of the season.

But the Senators won. Inexplicably. Heart-stoppingly. As they have for the last two months.

Mark Stone scored his second goal of the game at 2:43 of overtime, giving Ottawa a 4-3 win, having earned the extra time with a goal in the final two minutes of regulation.

Erik Karlsson began the sequence with the kind of play his detractors likely believe he doesn’t make: Flying off the bench, locking up a breaking Sidney Crosby and taking the puck away.

Then Karlsson did what everyone knows he does better than any defenseman in the NHL: He turned, accelerated and joined a rush with Stone and Kyle Turris, making it a 3-on-2. Turris fed Karlsson; Karlsson went back across the zone to Stone on left wing; Patric Honrnqvist couldn’t intercept the pass, and Stone had an open look between the faceoff dots on the slot in front of Marc-Andre Fleury.

He didn’t miss.

Once again, the Senators pulled victory from what appeared like humbling defeat.

It wasn’t the start Ottawa wanted, that’s for sure. Sidney Crosby scored 10 seconds into the game  - unmarked entering the zone, able to wind up for a slap shot – for his 28th of the season.

Beau Bennett and Patric Hornqvist, from Crosby, built the Penguins’ lead to 3-0 by 14:44 of the first, outshooting the Sens 12-7. Only the third goal might be on Hammond, as he leapt around the crease and was out of position to stop Hornqvist. (Hammond would atone later in the game with a few solid stops.)

The Senators found new life with 5:19 in the second period on the kind of play that makes you believe, if for a moment, in the Hockey Gods: Jean-Gabriel Pageau, shorthanded, deflecting a puck off a Derrick Pouliot skate. (Pouliot would later leave the game with an injury.)

Then Mark Stone scored just 34 seconds into the third period, sparking a Senators surge that had the Penguins on the ropes several times. You could feel the equalizer was on someone’s stick, as the Senators were en route to outshooting Pittsburgh 18-3; did they have enough time to score it?

With 1:48 left and Hammond pulled, Mike Hoffman knotted it, firing home the puck from Mika Zibanejad and Turris.

And then it was Stone. And then it was bedlam in Kanata.

So what does the playoff picture look like after this drama?

The Detroit Red Wings have 97 points, 38 regulation or overtime wins and two games left – at the Canadiens and at the Hurricanes.

The Penguins have 96 points, 38 ROW and two games left – back to back vs. the Islanders and at the Sabres.

The Boston Bruins have 95 points, 37 ROW and three games left – at Washington, at Florida and at Tampa Bay.

The Senators have 95 points, 35 ROW, and finish at the Rangers and at the Flyers.

They need help. But if Tuesday night told us anything, it’s that the Senators are going to continue helping themselves. As they have for the last 29 games on this miracle run to the playoff bubble.