Inching closer to their first playoff berth in eight years, the Ottawa Senators travel to Pittsburgh on Sunday to play a Penguins team trying to keep their slim postseason hopes alive.
Ottawa (39-28-5, 83 points) holds the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and is eight points above the playoff line with just 10 games to go.
Pittsburgh (29-34-11, 69 points), meanwhile, is eight points behind the New York Rangers for the final wild-card spot and has just eight games and a possible 16 points remaining.
The Senators, winners of two straight and three of four, will be playing the second game of a back-to-back that began with a 3-2 victory over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
Linus Ullmark stopped 29 of 31 shots, including 14 of 15 shots in the third period, to lead Ottawa.
Ridly Greig had a goal and an assist and Drake Batherson and Jake Sanderson also scored for the Senators, who had to withstand a strong push from the Blue Jackets in the final five minutes to hold on for the win.
“It was intense,” Greig said. “I think throughout the next 10 games here there’s going to be a lot of intense moments like that. We’re getting used to it, and it’s a lot of fun to be out there.”
“Felt close to a playoff game out there,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “Obviously, the crowd was awesome. It was a good effort. I thought our details were sharp. I thought our energy was good. There was a lot of loose puck battles that you have to win this time of year.”
The Senators have little time to enjoy the win, however. Next up is the team that knocked them out the last time they made the Stanley Cup playoffs. Pittsburgh defeated Ottawa in seven games in the 2017 Eastern Conference finals, including 3-2 in double overtime in Game 7, en route to winning the Stanley Cup.
“That’s part of the NHL,” Green said of the quick turnaround. “We don’t need to overthink it. Our guys have played a lot of back-to-backs. We talked about enjoying wins for a little bit of time and then getting ready to play tomorrow. We have another big one tomorrow.”
Pittsburgh has been off since a 7-3 loss at Buffalo on Thursday.
Captain Sidney Crosby scored in the first period to extend his point streak to nine games and also break Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record for most seasons averaging at least a point per game. Crosby has now done it 20 seasons, topping Gretzky’s mark of 19.
“It’s tough,” Crosby said when asked about the record. “You play to win. Obviously, it’s a special milestone, but in a game like that, it’s not really the same.”
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan, who has coached Crosby in 10 of those seasons including two that ended in Stanley Cup victories, called the milestone “remarkable.”
“He’s in such rare company,” Sullivan said. “With every milestone that he crosses, it just puts him in more elite company than he’s already in. Twenty seasons in a row, with such consistency, it’s an amazing accomplishment.”
Ottawa has won the two previous meetings between the two teams this season, outscoring the Penguins, 8-2, in the process. After Sunday’s contest, the Senators play eight of their final nine games at home where they have compiled a 21-10-2 record.
-Field Level Media
