PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby scored a goal and prevented one, and his deft stickhandling led to Kris Letang’s winner late in the third period as the Pittsburgh Penguins rebounded to beat the Ottawa Senators 2-1 on Friday night to even the Eastern Conference first-round series at a game apiece.
Several minutes after Crosby slid on his stomach across the crease to punch away Anton Volchenkov’s shot as it lay inches from the goal line, Crosby began cycling the puck by himself behind the Ottawa net. Looking for an opening to pass or to dart out and take a shot, he crossed the goalie trapezoid three times before finally carrying the puck out and, sliding to the ice, feeding it to Letang at the right point.
Letang’s shot with 4:12 left beat goalie Brian Elliott, who made 29 saves but didn’t get much support after Peter Regin scored on the Senators’ first shot 18 seconds into the game. Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury shook off that goal and a poor first game to turn aside Ottawa’s next 19 shots.
The Stanley Cup champion Penguins, staring at a daunting 2-0 series deficit if they lost a second successive home game, will travel to Ottawa for Game 3 on Sunday night.
On the Senators’ first shift, Jason Spezza controlled the puck along the boards and got it out to Regin, whose shot sailed past Fleury’s outstretched glove and into the net.
With Penguins backup goalie Brent Johnson out with flu-like symptoms, coach Dan Bylsma had to wonder about Fleury’s confidence — already a concern because of his shaky Game 1. But Fleury, 9-2 in his playoff career when following up a game in which he allowed four goals or more, settled down after that to shut out the Senators the rest of the way.
The Penguins tied it slightly more than eight minutes later when Crosby — held scoreless in the opener — put in a backhander from close range off a rebound of Chris Kunitz’s shot.
