OTTAWA — Mark Stone is catching fire at the right time.
Stone scored his second of the game 2:43 into overtime as the Ottawa Senators capped a four-goal comeback to edge the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 on Tuesday.
It was Stone’s sixth goal in five games. The 22-year-old sits second in rookie scoring with 61 points, including 24 goals.
“I’m just thankful to be able to contribute at those times of the game,” said Stone. “Everybody that’s contributing on my goals are the guys that are making the plays. I’m just the one that’s finishing it off.”
Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Mike Hoffman had the other goals for the Senators (41-26-13), who played their final home game. Andrew Hammond, who is 18-1-2, made 25 saves.
Sidney Crosby and Patric Hornqvist had a goal and an assist each for the Penguins (42-26-11), while Beau Bennett scored his first in 31 games. Marc-Andre Fleury turned away 40 of 44 shots.
The Senators, with 95 points, moved into a tie with the idle Boston Bruins, who hold the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Boston has a game in hand and the tiebreaker between the two teams with more regulation plus overtime wins. Ottawa trails the Penguins, who hold the first wild card spot, by just one point.
Pittsburgh is 3-8-2 in its last 13 games and could have clinched a playoff spot with a regulation win.
“We’ve got to wipe this one away,” said Crosby. “We’ve got two games left to earn the right to play in the playoffs. It’s up to us now, but we’ve got to forget this one pretty quick.”
Ottawa trailed 3-1 heading into the third period, but cut the deficit to one just 34 seconds in as Stone picked up his 23rd of the season. The goal extended his point streak to seven games with five goals and four assists.
Hammond was pulled for the extra attacker with just over two minutes remaining. Ottawa took advantage as Hoffman tied the game at 18:12 to send the sellout crowd of 20,263 into a frenzy.
Ottawa outshot Pittsburgh 18-3 in the third period.
“We’ve got to find a way to keep battling to the end,” said Fleury. “They were hungry for the win and they got it. It will take a little while to swallow this one.”
Despite trailing so early in the game the Senators never felt a sense of panic.
“The confidence we’ve built up over this run kind of gives us the ability to fight through situations where it seems like our backs are against the wall,” said Hammond. “We’ve had our backs against the wall this whole time as far as trying to make the playoffs. (Tuesday) doesn’t necessarily change that, but we just keep proving that we can keep fighting with them there.”
Down 3-0, the Senators came out firing in the second period and outshot the Penguins 16-13. Ottawa had a number of good scoring chances, but Fleury was solid.
The Senators got on the board with a short-handed goal at the 14-minute mark of the second as Pageau came down the ice and fired. His rebound went in off Derrick Pouliot.
“You need that first one to lift your emotion level up,” said Senators coach Dave Cameron. “We just wanted to get back in and get that first one to give ourselves an emotional lift.”
The Penguins scored all three of their goals in the first period.
Crosby opened the scoring on the opening faceoff as he took a pass from Hornqvist to beat Hammond.
The Penguins made it 2-0 on Bennett’s goal five minutes later. Hammond was knocked down leaving Bennett with a wide-open net.
Pittsburgh added their third on a lucky bounce at the 14-minute mark. Hammond made a big save on Crosby, but the puck went up before bouncing in.
Notes: The Senators were without LW Matt Puempel (high ankle sprain) and LW Milan Michalek (headaches). D Jared Cowen and LW Colin Greening were healthy scratches. … The Penguins were without D Kris Letang (concussion, day-to-day), D Christian Ehrhoff (upper body, day-to-day) and RW Steve Downie (upper body, day-to-day).
