NHL: Penguins rally, defeat Senators in shootout

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

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The Ottawa Senators thought that the game was over. Coming into the third period, the Senators led the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1, dominating every aspect of the game. After only one goal by Colby Armstrong, Ray Emery would blank the Penguins for the next 45 minutes the game. Things spiraled out of control when Marc-Andre Fleury allowed Mike Fischer, Christoph Schubert, and Chris Kelly to score in under 10 minutes, stopping only 4 out of the 7 shots he faced, and was pulled before the end of the first in favor of backup goaltender Jocelyn Thibault. Thibault's only mistake of the game came at 4:32 in the second period, when the Senators' Dany Heatley scored a power play goal to make it a 3 score game. After Heatley's goal, the offensive show the Senators had been putting on suddenly vanished. Backed by Thibault's strong play in net, Penguins rookie Jordan Staal scored his NHL best 7th shorthanded goal to make it 4-2. Still down by multiple goals, recent acquisition Gary Roberts scored at 11:02, to narrow the margin to 1 goal. 1 minute and 8 seconds later, Ryan Malone tied it up for his 14th goal of the season.

After a scoreless overtime period, Pittsburgh's Eric Christinsen and Ottawa's Dean McAmmond both scored to even the shootout at one goal apiece. Sidney Crosby, who won Sunday's game in Philadelphia in a shootout, would get the chance to win it for the Penguins. Crosby took the puck and beat Emery on the right side to lift the Penguins to the overtime victory, 5-4.