OTTAWA – Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored his first NHL hat trick Sunday night to lead the Senators in a fight-filled, 6-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens as Ottawa took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
The third period started out with the Senators leading 2-1, but after Pageau’s second goal of the night and a Kyle Turris marker seven minutes in, emotions overflowed and a line brawl broke out at centre ice.
Pageau, who was born in Ottawa, brought the 20,249 on hand at Scotiabank Place to its feet after scoring his second of the game at 1:18 of the third period to give the Senators a 3-1 lead.
Turris’ goal, his first of the series, at the seven-minute mark put the game out of reach and on the ensuing faceoff four different fights broke out.
The Senators ended up with the man advantage and Jakob Silfverberg scored on the power play as he beat Habs goalie Carey Price up high to make it 5-1 with over 12 minutes remaining.
More penalties were taken and at one point Ottawa was left with just five players on the bench, while Montreal had six.
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Pageau completed the hat trick, just the second player in Senators history to score a hat trick in the playoffs after Daniel Alfredsson did it in 1998, with less than two minutes remaining in regulation.
Alfredsson scored Ottawa’s opening goal and Craig Anderson stopped 32 shots.
Price faced 30 shots in a game he will want to forget. Rene Bourque scored the lone goal for the Canadiens at 14:34 of the first.
Captain Brian Gionta and Max Pacioretty, who both missed Game 2, were back in the lineup for the Canadiens.
Pageau, with his first career playoff goal, gave the Senators a 2-1 lead early in the second as he slipped between defencemen P.K. Subban and Andrei Markov to beat Price over the shoulder.
Pageau is not likely to forget the goal as he was hit in the mouth by Subban on the goal and lost a tooth. Players could be seen looking for the tooth on the ensuing goal celebration.
The Canadiens had a couple of great chances to tie the game in the second, but came up short. Alex Galchenyuk was stopped by Anderson as he came racing in alone, and then with Montreal on the power play, Tomas Plekanec rang a shot off the crossbar.
A physical first period ended with the teams tied 1-1.
The Senators made the most of a 28-second two man advantage as Alfredsson picked up his own rebound at his feet and quickly rifled it past the right of Price. It was the Senators first power-play goal of the series.
Montreal tied the game with a power-play goal of its own as Plekanec found Bourque to create a two-on-one. Bourque’s shot looked harmless enough, but the change of speed seemed to throw Anderson off and he was unable to get over in time and he could only watch as the puck trickled across the goal line.
The Senators were forced to play most of the game with just five defencemen as Patrick Wiercioch, making his playoff debut, left the game midway through the first with a lower body injury and never returned.
Game 4 is Tuesday in Ottawa.
Notes: The Senators are without C Jason Spezza (back, indefinitely). D Eric Gryba served the second and final game of his suspension. Guillaume Latendresse and Andre Benoit were healthy scratches for the Senators in favour of Cory Conacher and Patrick Wierciocha With Pacioretty and Gionta back in the lineup, Jeff Halpern and Gabriel Dumont were scratched.
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