OTTAWA – One down. One more to go.
The Ottawa Senators are on the verge of their first appearance in the Eastern Conference final in a decade after a heart-stopping 5-4 overtime victory over the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon.
Kyle Turris scored the winner at 6:28 after Derick Brassard had tied the game for Ottawa with goalie Craig Anderson pulled for an extra attacker.
That kept them from a loss that would have been awfully difficult to swallow. The Senators played with an urgency that was sorely lacking during back-to-back defeats at Madison Square Garden this week, but found themselves trailing 4-3 in the third period when Jimmy Vesey scored on a goal Anderson originally appeared to stop.
The only problem is that his glove was on the wrong side of the goal-line when he caught Vesey’s diving attempt at 12:48 of the third period.
It was a back-and-forth affair.
Ottawa fell behind 2-0 a little more than five minutes into the game on goals by Jesper Fast and Nick Holden.
Mark Stone, who played his finest game of the series, answered back quickly for the Senators by fighting off Dan Girardi and backhanding home a rebound that trickled just across the goal-line.
Ottawa continued to push.
A diving Henrik Lundqvist stopped Jean-Gabriel Pageau on a well-executed power play while Mike Hoffman shot just wide from the slot. Frederik Claesson, of all people, swooped behind the goal and tried a wraparound.
The breakthrough finally came after the eight-minute mark of the second period, when Erik Karlsson broke up a pass in his own end, skated into offensive zone and dropped for Clarke MacArthur. He fooled the King with a slap pass to Hoffman, who roofed a one-timer that sent Canadian Tire Centre into towel-waving bedlam.
Before the public address announcer could even finish announcing that goal, Tom Pyatt tipped home a Zack Smith shot with his back to Lundqvist to give Ottawa a 3-2 lead.
They wound up holding it for almost nine minutes – more than double the amount they led over the first four games – before Ryan McDonagh tipped home a spinning Michael Grabner shot at 17:49.
It set the stage for a dramatic final period.
The Senators had their chances. Bobby Ryan broke free for a breakaway but couldn’t beat Lundqvist with a backhander while Pageau shot just wide after a fantastic set up by Stone.
Anderson did what he could at the other end, denying Chris Kreider from in alone before making a spectacular diving “stop” on Vesey. There was an audible gasp inside the arena for that one. However, the crowd fell quiet when video review revealed that the puck crossed the line.
But Brassard got them out of their seats again by batting home a loose puck with 86 seconds to play in regulation. Grabner appeared to give New York the win early in overtime – it was waved off by a high stick – before Turris sent the locals home happy.
Now Ottawa is one win away from moving on, with Game 6 looming in New York on Tuesday night.