Pittsburgh, PA (SportsNetwork.com) – Christian Ehrhoff scored with 1:50
remaining to snap a tie and lift the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 3-2 victory over
the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.
Evgeni Malkin and Brandon Sutter also scored for the Penguins, who bounced
back from a 3-0 shutout at the hands of Vancouver on Thursday and won for the
third time in their last four games.
“It was important to have a (good) rebound game,” said Penguins coach Mike
Johnston. “We feel we didn’t play our best (on Thursday).”
Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves, including two in the closing moments, in the
victory.
Milan Michalek and Mika Zibanejad scored second-period goals for Ottawa, which
has lost five in a row and seven of its last eight. Craig Anderson stopped 30
shots in defeat, but had little chance on Ehrhoff’s winner.
The Penguins worked for the puck deep and Sidney Crosby emerged with it along
the left boards. He backhanded a cross-ice pass to an unchecked Ehrhoff, who
moved into the right circle alone and blasted a shot from the dot into the
upper right corner of the net for his second goal of the season.
Fleury kept the Penguins in front with 1:19 to play when he stopped a
deflected shot and stuck out the glove to deny Bobby Ryan’s rebound from the
doorstep.
Malkin gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead just 4:17 into the game, shortly after he
exited the penalty box after serving a roughing minor. He picked up the puck
at center ice, raced into the Ottawa zone on a breakaway and made neat move
from the backhand to the forehand as he approached the crease and slipped a
shot just inside the left post.
Anderson remained on the ice for a time after Malkin crashed into him, but
stayed in the game and turned aside the other 12 shots he faced in the first
period to keep the Senators down only one.
Ottawa then scored twice in the first half of the second period to move in
front. Michalek tipped an Erik Karlsson point shot past Fleury just 73 seconds
into the stanza on a power play and Zibanejad scored from the slot off a nice
feed from Ryan at the 8:44 mark.
The Penguins picked up a late power play and tied it just 1:57 before the end
of the second when Sutter deflected Olli Maatta’s shot from the left boards.
“We competed and worked hard and that’s what you have to do,” said Crosby.
“Getting that late goal in the second period was big and allowed us to come
back in the third.”
Game Notes
Pittsburgh’s Craig Adams picked up an assist on the winning goal and played in
his 314th consecutive game to set a franchise record, surpassing the old mark
of 313 set by Ron Schock … Pittsburgh went 1-for-4 on the power play, while
Ottawa cashed in once on five chances with the extra skater … The Penguins
improved to 15-1-2 when scoring at least three goals … Pittsburgh’s Zach
Sill was given a game misconduct just 3:23 into the contest when he leveled
Ottawa’s Kyle Turris with what appeared to be a clean shoulder hit to the
chest, although the officials called it interference for what they deemed to
be a little late … Pittsburgh improved to 5-1-1 in its last seven against
Ottawa and 3-0-1 in its last four at home against the Senators.
