Ottawa Senators on the verge of elimination as Pittsburgh Penguins take Game 4, 7-3 – NHL news
Going to Ottawa’s Scotiabank Place in Ontario, Canada, was a special time for the Senators who looked to get back in the 2013 National Hockey League (NHL) Playoffs Semifinal series but the Pittsburgh Penguins were just too hard to handle.
The Penguins won 7-3, putting Ottawa on the verge of elimination as the series now heads back to Pittsburgh.
Ottawa played a good match in front of a 20,000 plus crowd, but lost total control of the game entering the third and final period of regulation as Pittsburgh had took shots consistently and had 42 on the Senators net by the time it was all over with.
Senators’ goalie Craig Anderson is not an easy guy to break down, but after letting six through on 38 attempts, it was time for Ottawa to switch him with Robin Lehner, but by then, it was definitely too late. Lehner also let one through on a total of four
attempts.
“There was a sense like, 'OK, this might take as many shots as we can muster to break this guy.' And fortunately, we kept on that mindset,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said, according to ESPN. “It was a matter of, 'We are going to have to fire anything and
everything we can at this guy to get one by him.’“
At the end of the opening 20 minutes, Ottawa was ahead 2-1 with Milan Michalek scoring shorthanded and Kyle Turris potting his fifth of the playoffs. Pittsburgh’s James Neal finally broke a long spell of being scoreless with an unassisted goal at 14:56.
Pittsburgh thrashed Ottawa in the second with Chris Kunitz and Jarome Iginla scoring back-to-back 40 seconds apart while James Neal, Pascal Dupuis, Sidney Crosby and Iginla again scored four straight in the third to seal the deal. Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson
brought his team’s total up to 3 with a power play goal at 14:44, but with less than six minutes to go and four goals to level it, the home side completely gave up hope.
Game 5 is scheduled to be held in Pittsburgh between the Senators and Penguins on Friday at 7:30 PM ET.
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