Sens take down Pens in OT

Despite losing Matt Duchene and Bobby Ryan to injuries, the Senators won 2-1 in overtime against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night. Ryan Dzingel scored on the power play with 3:40 left in overtime. Mark Stone assisted Dzingel’s game-winning goal. Dzingel earned first star of the game.

Senators coach, Guy Boucher, was happy with how the Sens played against the Penguins.

“Considering all the circumstances I mean, that’s an outstanding win for us. Great character and the guys sticking together and finding a way and that’s what we told ourselves, there’s always a way. We changed the looks of some things, change some lines and some pairings and some matchups. I think the players really bought into what we were trying to do. We wanted to be very disciplined in our game plan and we were.”

After a scoreless third period, overtime was needed to decide the one-one tie. Penguins took a too many men penalty giving the Senators an advantage.

The Senators hadn’t taken advantage of two other power plays earlier in the game, leading into the third. DeSmith was a huge asset for the Penguins in shutting down the Senators top line, Colin White, Mark Stone and Brady Tkachuk for most of the game.

Crosby was shaken up after getting an elbow to the head by Zack Smith, earning Smith a two minute minor for an illegal check to the head. But, Pittsburgh was unable to capitalize on the power play.

Kris Letang seemed to be involved in almost every physical play with the Senators. Tkachuk and Letang got tangled up, and Tkachuk didn’t take it very lightly.

Zack Smith’s goal got overturned earlier in the game for being offside after a coach’s challenge. After the overturned goal, Jean-Sebastien Dea scored to tie it up for the Penguins with 16:33 left in the second. Penguins put a lot of pressure on Anderson in the second.

For the most part the Penguins spent a lot of quality time in the Senators end. The Senators couldn’t keep control of the puck and ended up dumping it in the Penguins end a few times to get a change.

With the absence of power forward Matt Duchene, Colin White took centre with Mark Stone and Brady Tkachuk on the wing.

Anderson bailed the Senators out on their first penalty kill of the game as Maxime Lajoie got two minutes for tripping.

The game remained 1-0 with the Senators almost pinching another one at the end but DeSmith held on to many of the Sens shots. DeSmith is taking the place of regular goalie Matt Murray for the Penguins.

The Senators were outshot for most of the game. Anderson made 36 saves, shutting down the Penguins for the second time this season.

The last time the Senators hosted the Penguins, Ottawa won 6-4.

The Senators play against the Boston Bruins tomorrow night at the Canadian Tire Centre.

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