The Pittsburgh Penguins capitalized on a third-period burst led by Sidney Crosby to beat Ottawa 4-1 on Monday, pushing the Senators to the brink of elimination from the NHL playoffs.
Pittsburgh leads last year’s Stanley Cup finalists 3-0 in the best-of-seven playoff quarter-finals and can finish the job on today. The Senators had knocked the Penguins out in the first round last season.
“We know it’s uphill, and we’re going to approach it like it’s sudden death,” Senators coach Bryan Murray said.
After a scoreless first period, Ottawa’s Nick Foligno and Pittsburgh’s Maxime Talbot traded goals in the second.
Sidney Crosby then put Pittsburgh ahead with a fast break 12 seconds into the third, and Jordan Staal followed up 78 seconds later to put the Penguins up 3-1. A powerplay goal by Marian Hossa after a scramble in front of Senators goalie Martin Gerber put the game out of reach.
“When you let a star [Crosby] get a break like that, he usually scores and he did. And from that point on it looked like we didn’t have the same energy, and they really got going,” a subdued Murray said.
Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 33 shots.
Predators 5, Red Wings 3
At Nashville, Tennessee, Jason Arnott scored with 3:58 left in the final period, the second Nashville goal in nine seconds, and the Predators rallied past Detroit to get back into the first-round series.
Nashville, which trails 2-1, will look to tie the series in Game 4 tonight, and the series will then shift back to Detroit tomorrow.
Wild 3, Avalanche 2, OT
At Denver, Pierre-Marc Bouchard took the pass from Brian Rolston from behind the net and sent it past Jose Theodore 11:58 into overtime to lift Minnesota over Colorado.
It was the third straight overtime game in this first-round series, with the Wild winning two of them.
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