NHL playoffs: Senators, Penguins take 2-0 leads in Eastern Conference semifinals

Jean-Gabriel Pageau got his fourth goal of the game in the second overtime after scoring twice late in regulation, lifting the Ottawa Senators over the New York Rangers 6-5 Saturday in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Ottawa leads the series 2-0 despite trailing by two goals after Brady Skjei’s score with 14:50 left in the third. Pageau cut it to 5-4 with 3:19 left in the period, then tied it with 1:02 remaining.

Pageau scored again 2:54 into the second OT, snapping in a shot during a 2-on-1 rush alongside Tommy Wingels. Pageau is the first Senator ever with four goals in a playoff game.

Marc Methot and Mark Stone also scored for Ottawa, and Craig Anderson had 43 saves.

Skjei had two goals for New York and Michael Grabner, Chris Kreider and Derek Stepan also scored. Henrik Lundqvist stopped 28 shots.

The series heads to New York for Game 3 on Tuesday night.

Ottawa lost Clarke MacArthur to injury and won despite letting Grabner and Stepan score short-handed. It leads a playoff series 2-0 for only the second time in team history and first since the 2007 Eastern Conference final against Buffalo. The Senators have never swept a postseason series.

Skjei scored a few minutes after Stone cut New York’s lead to 4-3. Skjei broke up an odd-man rush, took a feed from Brendan Smith in transition and fired in his fourth goal of the playoffs.

Pageau rallied the Senators with a pair of tip-in goals, the first on a point shot from Zack Smith, and the second on Kyle Turris’ shot from the left faceoff circle.

After his OT score, Pageau slid into the end boards, skated to the left corner and was swarmed by teammates. Wingels stopped to scoop the puck out of the goal before joining the pile.

The 24-year-old Pageau has two career postseason hat tricks. He scored 12 goals in 82 games for Ottawa this season, and this was his first career overtime score.

Pittsburgh 6, at Washington 2: Phil Kessel scored twice, Sidney Crosby set up more goals and the Penguins chased Braden Holtby on the way to a rout of the Capitals in Game 2 that gave them a commanding 2-0 lead in their second-round series.

Marc-Andre Fleury was brilliant again in stopping 34 of the 36 shots he faced for Pittsburgh, which also got goals by Matt Cullen, Jake Guentzel and Evgeni Malkin. The Penguins scored three goals on 14 shots on Holtby, who was pulled in favor of Philipp Grubauer after the second period.

Grubauer didn’t fare much better, allowing two goals on nine shots. Matt Niskanen and Nicklas Backstrom scored for the Capitals, who outshot the Penguins 36-23 but still face an uphill task of trying to become just the 19th team to win a series after losing the first two games at home.

Guentzel added an empty-net goal to seal it for the Penguins, his playoff-best seventh.