OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) The Ottawa Senators scored a big win, but lost a player in the process.
Kyle Turris and Bobby Ryan scored in the shootout as the Senators beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 in the NHL on Thursday night. They appear to have lost defenseman Marc Methot for perhaps an extended period of time, though, after he was slashed by the stick of Sidney Crosby in the first period.
Ottawa played the final 45 minutes without Methot, who left the game with a bloodied and mangled finger on his left hand following a two-handed slash from Crosby. Crosby didn’t receive a penalty on the play.
Methot grabbed Crosby by the jersey after the whistle and had a few words for the Penguins’ captain before leaving the ice.
”His finger is destroyed. It’s shattered and he’s out for weeks,” Senators coach Guy Boucher said.
Ottawa captain Erik Karlsson said it was an unfortunate play, but a play that happens all the time. This one just went bad.
”(Crosby) puts his stick in as (Methot) is trying to shoot the puck in and unfortunately it hits his finger,” Karlsson said. ”It turns out worse than most other times, plays like that happen all the time, but I don’t think it was intentional or dirty.”
Crosby echoed those sentiments saying he wasn’t looking to injure Methot.
”I was just trying to get his stick and I think I caught his finger judging by his reaction and their reaction. I’ve gotten those before. They don’t feel good.”
Mike Hoffman scored in regulation for the Senators and Mike Condon finished with 34 saves, including two incredible point-blank stops in overtime to keep the game going.
”I was lucky to get it on the blocker there and thankfully it went over the net,” Condon said of his overtime save on Chris Kunitz.
Nick Bonino had the goal in regulation for the Penguins and Matt Murray stopped 29 shots.
After being outplayed for much of the first two periods, the Senators were much better in the third and tied the score 1-1 on the power play at 9:43 as Hoffman beat Murray over the shoulder with a wrist shot just 14 seconds after Matt Cullen was penalized for holding.
”I couldn’t really see it until late and by that time, he’s got such a good shot it was already too late for me to react to it. But I’ve got to have that short side, so that’s probably on me,” Murray said.
25% Bonus via Western Union
