NHL: Kyle Turris’ OT goal gives Senators 3-2 series lead over Rangers

Kyle Turris scored 6:28 into overtime to lift the Ottawa Senators to 5-4 victory over the New York Rangers on Saturday for a 3-2 series lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Derick Brassard tied the score with 1:26 left in the third period for the Senators. Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman and Tom Pyatt also scored and Craig Anderson stopped 29 shots. It was Ottawa’s fifth overtime win of the postseason, including a double-overtime victory here against the Rangers in Game 2.

Jesper Fast, Nick Holden, Ryan McDonagh and Jimmy Vesey scored for the Rangers, and Henrik Lundqvist finished with 32 saves.

Michael Grabner appeared to win it for the Rangers less than 5 minutes into overtime, but it was disallowed because his redirection came on a high-stick.

Turris then knocked in the rebound of his own shot through Lundqvist’s five-hole to put the Senators one win away from returning to the conference finals for the first time since 2007.

Game 6 is Tuesday night in New York.

Ottawa trailed 2-0 less than 5 1/2 minutes into the game, before scoring three times to take the lead midway through the second period. McDonagh tied it for the Rangers late in the second and Vesey gave them the lead with 7:12 remaining in the third.

With Anderson pulled for an extra skater, Brassard tied it with the puck deflecting in off the back of Rangers defenseman Brandon Smith’s right skate.

Teams that win Game 5 when a series is tied 2-2 have gone on to win 78.7 per cent of the time, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, including a perfect 3-0 in 2017.

The biggest early buzz at Canadian Tire Centre came when Chris Neil stepped onto the ice for the first time this postseason, hoping to give the Senators a lift after they dropped the previous two games at New York.

New York, which trailed for only 4:11 in the first four games of the series, then grabbed hold of another lead with two goals in 66 seconds. Fast got the first one by finishing off an odd-man rush and Holden added the second on a weak shot that beat Anderson’s glove far-side.

The Rangers have scored first all five games this series. Senators coach Guy Boucher said he wasn’t concerned by that before the game — the team’s approach should remain the same, he said — and such thinking proved prescient as the night wore on.

Ottawa cut the two-goal deficit in half 50 seconds after Holden’s goal. Lundqvist stopped the first attempt by Chris Wideman, but couldn’t get in front of Stone’s backhand rebound shot, which just crept across the goal-line.

Lundqvist looked shaky early on, but made saves that kept Ottawa from tying it in the first. His best stop came when he leapt from left to right to deny Turris’s one-time attempt from the left faceoff circle on a power play.

The Senators fired 15 shots in the opening period after finishing with just 23 total in Game 4. After a Game 1 win, which saw Lundqvist pelted with 43 shots, Boucher said “lots and lots and lots of shots” were necessary to beat the Rangers’ goalie, who entered the night tied for 13th in career playoff wins (61).

Neil tried to make an impression again early in the second when he raced in to pummel Tanner Glass for a big hit on Dion Phaneuf moments earlier.

The Senators struck for two goals 33 seconds apart a short while later. The first came on two fine feeds from Erik Karlsson and Clarke MacArthur at 8:17, the latter a fake shot sent cross-ice to Hoffman who buried the shot past Lundqvist. That tied the game 2-2 and then Pyatt gave Ottawa their first lead when he redirected Zack Smith’s no-look shot on goal from near the sideboards.

Momentum, though, started to shift back in New York’s favor in the back half of the second. Oscar Lindberg first hit a post as the Rangers spent shift after shift in Ottawa’s zone. The Rangers’ relentless pressure forced some sloppy puck play from the Sens, eventually leading to McDonagh’s tying goal.

Ottawa had only two shots over the final 10 minutes of the period.

The Senators had a couple terrific chances to pull ahead once more in the opening minutes of the third, but Bobby Ryan was stopped on a partial break and Jean-Gabriel Pageau shot wide when he got a step on the Rangers defense.

Vesey pulled the Rangers in front 4-3 with his first career playoff goal when he pounced on a rebound of Brady Skjei’s shot. Anderson looked to have pulled it back with his glove, but video review confirmed that the puck crossed the line.

Washington 4, Pittsburgh 2

Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin scored 27 seconds apart in the third period as the Washington Capitals avoided elimination by beating the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 in Game 5 on Saturday night.

Nicklas Backstrom tied the score early in the third as the Capitals finally solved Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who allowed four goals on 32 shots. Washington’s comeback spoiled the return of Penguins captain Sidney Crosby after a one-game absence due to a concussion.

Crosby had an assist and Carl Hagelin and Phil Kessel also scored for the Penguins, who lead the second-round series 3-2 with Game 6 back in Pittsburgh on Monday night.

While Fleury struggled for the first time against the Capitals, Vezina Trophy finalist Braden Holtby had his best game of the series, stopping 20 shots. Andre Burakovsky also scored for Washington.

Even though players were loose at the morning skate facing elimination, the nerves were palpable inside the arena even before puck drop. When an early Capitals power play went nowhere and Hagelin made it 1-0 Pittsburgh 10:24 in, it got quiet fast — except for Penguins fans’ derisive chants of “HOLT-BY, HOLT-BY.”

Burakovsky pumped some energy back in with a psychologically important goal with 29.7 seconds remaining in the first period, his first of the playoffs. He earned a promotion to the top line because of his strong play in the series but scored back with the third line on a toe drag that bought him space and a shot that froze Fleury.

Hours after defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk bemoaned that ill-timed penalties were hurting the Capitals, a holding call on Nate Schmidt paved the way for another momentum shift as Kessel scored on the power play 4:20 into the second. The Penguins went into the second intermission with a lead having won 37 of 39 games in that spot during the regular season and all six in the playoffs.

It took an individual effort from Backstrom to begin Washington’s stunning turnaround. The Capitals’ top-line center carried the puck up the ice, executed a give-and-go with Burakovsky and beat Fleury for the tying goal at 2:49 of the third.

With the crowd buzzing again, Kuznetsov sparked more chants of “FLEU-RY, FLEU-RY,” by scoring the go-ahead goal from a sharp angle 7:20 into the third. It was his fifth goal of the playoffs and fourth in the series.

Ovechkin wasted no time making it 4-2 and making coach Barry Trotz look like a genius for dropping him to the third line as he wired a shot past Fleury at 7:47. Trotz talked about spreading offense throughout the lineup, and his flipping Burakovsky and Ovechkin allowed for Washington’s first goal from its bottom two lines in five games.