Extra effort
OTTAWA — Dany Sabourin came off the bench and stopped Ottawa's potent scorers in a shootout.
Sabourin denied four shooters in a row and Jarkko Ruutu scored on Pittsburgh's fifth shootout attempt to give the Penguins a 6-5 victory over the Senators on Thursday night.
Ruutu put a backhander through Martin Gerber's pads after Ottawa's Jason Spezza and Pittsburgh's Erik Christensen each converted their team's first shootout opportunity.
Sabourin, who entered midway through the first period after the Senators took an early 2-0 lead, stopped Antoine Vermette, Dany Heatley, Mike Fisher and Dean McAmmond for the win after making 29 saves in regulation.
"He won a shootout for us earlier this year, and even in the third period when Ottawa really started to pour it on a little bit, we got sloppy and he made some big saves for us," said Ryan Malone, who scored twice.
Sergei Gonchar got his seventh goal 7:07 into the third as Pittsburgh overcame a two-goal deficit for the second time in the game to tie it at 5.
"We're resilient," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "I don't think we played our best third period — we gave up some scoring chances that we don't usually give up but we found a way to come back in the game. Our power play gave us a goal, finally, in the third and gave us a chance to come back. It's nice to get a win."
Spezza scored twice and assisted on Heatley's power-play goal 16:15 into the second, which gave Ottawa its second lead of the game at 4-3.
Christoph Schubert put the Senators up 5-3 when he got credit for his second goal of the season 1:04 into the third.
The Penguins, who erased an early 2-0 deficit with goals by Evgeni Malkin and Malone 18 seconds apart late in the first, mounted their second comeback as Malone scored his second of the game — his sixth of the season — on a power play at 5:56 to cut the lead to 5-4.
Colby Armstrong got his second assist of the game when he set up Gonchar to draw Pittsburgh even for the second time.
"Basically, a hooking penalty gets them back in the game, 5-4, then they score one right after," said Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson, who had three assists but didn't take part in the shootout after pulling his groin in overtime. "We had our chances to win it, anyway, but we didn't do it tonight."
Spezza hit a post later in the period and was stopped by Sabourin on a 2-on-1 in overtime.
"This one stings because we probably should have won," Spezza said. "I think we outplayed them, but we didn't, so you've got to learn from it."
Malkin hit the outside of the left post moments after Spezza's chance in overtime.
"Every time we play these guys it's pretty exciting," Malone said. "With the offense they have, their team is pretty much the best in the league right now. It was a great character win for us."
