Winger Jarkko Ruutu scored in the fifth round of the shootout to rally the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 6-5 upset win over the Ottawa Senators Thursday night at Scotiabank Place in Kanata, Ont.
With the game on the line, Ruutu calmly skated toward the Ottawa net and raised a backhand shot over goaltender Martin Gerber.
Senators forward Mike Fisher, left, checks Pittsburgh superstar Sidney Crosby Thursday night at Scotiabank Place.
(Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
The Penguins (9-11-2) twice came back from a two-goal deficit before claiming the victory in the shootout.
Ottawa (16-4-1) suffered its second straight defeat for the first time this season. The Senators were coming off a 4-2 loss to the Sabres in Buffalo on Wednesday night.
"This one stings because we probably should have won," said Ottawa forward Spezza. "I think we outplayed them, but we didn't, so you've got to learn from it."
Ryan Malone led Pittsburgh offensively with two goals and one assist with Evegni Malkin, Tyler Kennedy and Sergei Gonchar netting the other tallies.
Spezza scored two goals and added one assist for Ottawa, which also received markers from Chris Phillips, Dany Heatley and Christoph Schubert.
Spezza and Pittsburgh's Erik Christensen were the only other skaters to score in the shootout. At first glance, Christensen's goal was waved off but replay showed Gerber's blocker knocked the puck across the goal-line.
Pittsburgh goaltender Dany Sabourin, who entered midway through the first period after the Senators took an early 2-0 lead, stopped Antoine Vermette, Heatley, Mike Fisher and Dean McAmmond for the win after making 29 saves in regulation time.
"He won a shootout for us earlier this year, and even in the third period when Ottawa really started to pour it on a little bit, we got sloppy and he made some big saves for us," said Malone.
It appeared the Senators would cruise to victory after building a 5-3 lead.
Captain Daniel Alfredsson slid a pass to Heatley, who made no mistake in burying the puck behind Sabourin on the power play at 16:15 of the second period.
The Senators then went up by two goals just 1:04 into the third when Schubert directed a shot to the Pittsburgh net that beat a surprised Sabourin. But the Penguins refused to go away on this night.
Malone's power-play goal cut Ottawa's lead to 5-4 at 5:56. Pittsburgh tied the game 5-5 less than two minutes later when Colby Amstrong fed a nifty pass on his knees to Gonchar, who beat Sabourin with a one-timer.
"We're resilient," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said.
"I don't think we played our best third period — we gave up some scoring chances that we don't usually give up but we found a way to come back in the game. Our power play gave us a goal, finally, in the third and gave us a chance to come back. It's nice to get a win."
The Senators chased starter Marc-Andre Fluery out of the game after Spezza and Phillips staked Ottawa to a 2-0 lead with only 10:55 gone in the first period.
Therrien then pulled Fluery, who allowed two goals on only four shots, in favour of Sabourin.
Forward Patrick Eaves missed the game and will be sidelined indefinitely with a shoulder injury, the Senators revealed earlier Thursday.
Eaves sustained the injury after a collision with Buffalo Sabres defenceman Brian Campbell during Ottawa's 4-2 loss on Wednesday night.
Eaves, 23, has scored four goals and tallied eight points in 20 games this season.
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