Sidney Crosby increased his points streak to 24 games by scoring with three and a half minutes to play, but Ottawa Senators goalie Brian Elliott dominated the Penguins, who lost 3-1.
Mike Fisher scored a power-play goal in the first to give the Senators an early lead, and Erik Karlsson added goals in the first period and early in the second period to give the Senators a 3-1 lead. The Penguins kept the Senators on the defensive throughout the rest of the second period, but Elliott was tremendous, stopping all of the Pens’ 22 shots on goal.
The third period wasn’t as oriented around the Penguins’ offense, but the Senators’ offense was largely confined to a couple of breakaways, one of which could have easily been called a goal, as the puck came about as close as possible to going over the goal line without actually doing so. (Nick Foligno took a penalty shot after Brooks Orpik was whistled on the play, but Marc-Andre Fleury made a nifty glove save.) Overall, the Pens got 17 shots on goal in the third period but weren’t able to score until Crosby took a shot that bounced off the Senators’ Matt Carkner and into the net.
Elliott registered 44 saves overall and was clearly the key player of the game, however – both teams played a physical game and the Pens were very persistent and got a ton of opportunities, but Elliott wouldn’t let them convert any of them until Crosby’s goal when the game was nearly over.
The Penguins’ next game is on Tuesday at home against the Atlanta Thrashers.