Ottawa avoids ouster
PITTSBURGH — Matt Carkner didn't know how his shot went in. He didn't care, either.
All he knew was his first career playoff goal ended the longest game in Ottawa Senators history — and kept his team alive in its first-round playoff series.
Carkner scored at 7:06 of the third overtime to give the Senators a 4-3 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday night, forcing a sixth game in the Eastern Conference series.
"I just came on for a change and (captain Daniel Alfredsson) did a good job on the forecheck, got the puck and just saw me and gave it to me," said Carkner, playing in his first postseason. "I just tried to miss the defender who was going down for a block, and I didn't really see it go in. I just saw a deflection and it went in."
Carkner's slap shot through traffic from the right point deflected off the Penguins' Matt Cooke, ending the longest game of the playoffs this year at 107 minutes, 6 seconds. It was only the second Senators game to go past one extra session.
"Unbelievable feeling," Carkner said. "We battled hard all night and stuck with it even though we lost some momentum here and there. Three overtimes and we knew it wasn't going to be a pretty goal."
Peter Regin tied it with 9:36 left in regulation, Mike Fisher and Jarkko Ruutu also scored, and Jason Spezza and Erik Karlsson each had two assists for the Senators, who have won two of three at Mellon Arena. Game 6 is Saturday night in Ottawa.
"We haven't done anything other than get ourselves back in the series," said Matt Cullen, who was screening Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury on the winning goal. "It's a big win, and the way we did it was really big and certainly a big boost for us."
Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist to give him multiple points in every playoff game this season, and Kris Letang and Chris Kunitz also scored for Pittsburgh. The Penguins rallied from a 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 lead on Crosby's goal with 10:59 left in regulation only to give up the equalizer 1:23 later.
Pascal Leclaire made 56 saves in his first playoff start. He made his career postseason debut after Brian Elliott was pulled during the second period of Game 4 and wasn't announced as the starter until Thursday morning.
"He was awesome," Fisher said. "He was great. He had some huge saves and looked calm and cool. He was a big part of it."
The game was the second-longest in the history of Mellon Arena (Philadelphia's Keith Primeau scored in the fifth overtime to beat the Penguins on May 4, 2000) and third-longest in Penguins' history.
Nick Foligno nearly won it 2:05 into the first overtime — but officials ruled he directed the puck into the net with a kicking motion — the third initial disallowance of a goal in the game.
The first of which — Kunitz sliding the puck in with the net lifted up its moorings with 1:26 to play in the second period — ultimately counted. But when Kunitz had a goal taken away 3:22 into the third when his deflection of a Sergei Gonchar shot came with his stick raised above his shoulder.
Pittsburgh had outshot Ottawa 27-9 between its first goal late in the first period until Crosby's goal, and it seemed a mere formality the Penguins would cruise into the second round on a four-game winning streak.
"The last half of the second and the first half of the third, we kind of sat back and it was almost as if we were waiting for something bad to happen," Clouston said. "It wasn't until they went ahead that we started to just play our game."
Pittsburgh's best chances after regulation were when Malkin hit a post 5 minutes into the second overtime and then when he was denied by Leclaire about 3 minutes later on a wrist shot.
