OTTAWA -- The Ottawa Senators rallied for a 2-1 shootout win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night at Canadian Tire Centre, but they might have paid a big price for the victory.
Mike Hoffman scored in regulation for the Senators, and Kyle Turris and Bobby Ryan scored in the shootout. Mike Condon made 34 saves to help the Senators pull to within a point of the Montreal Canadiens for first place in the Atlantic Division.
The Senators (41-24-8) play the Canadiens at Bell Centre on Saturday.
However, Ottawa lost top pairing defenseman Mark Methot "for weeks," according to coach Guy Boucher, after Methot was slashed by Penguins captain Sidney Crosby in the first period.
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"His finger is destroyed. It's shattered," Boucher said.
Crosby said, "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."
Methot plays with Senators captain Erik Karlsson on the club's top pairing.
"(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."
The injury-ravaged Penguins (46-17-10) had a three-game winning streak end and are two points behind the Washington Capitals for first place in the Metropolitan Division. They are one point ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Hoffman scored at 9:43 of the third period, on the power play, to tie the game 1-1. Hoffman's rising wrist shot beat Murray high to the stick side.
"(I was) just really looking to put the puck on net," said Hoffman, who scored his team-leading 14th on the power play. "That's what generates a lot of our scoring chances on the power play. That was really just my main objective, to get it past their D, and managed to find the back of the net."
Condon made the save of the night halfway through overtime when he got his right arm on a shot from the slot by Penguins forward Chris Kunitz. Senators forward Derick Brassard got his stick on the shot on the way to the net.
"It was (Brassard) who originally got his stick on it to kind of slow it down and it gave me that extra half second to extend an arm," Condon said. "I was lucky to get it on the blocker there, and thankfully it went over the net."
Nick Bonino scored a power-play goal at 9:21 of the second period, and Matt Murray made 29 saves for the Penguins.
Murray made a couple of big saves when the game was scoreless. He got his left pad on a hard, low shot by Ottawa forward Alexandre Burrows at 4:27 of the first period and made a glove save from a sitting position on a hard shot by Ryan Dzingel from the slot at 7:30.
"I think we've been pretty resilient," Crosby said. "We've had to play a lot of games here lately with a lot of guys in different positions, different roles and they've come in and done a great job. I think we're trying to rally around that adversity a bit and find ways to get points. It was a good hockey game tonight, we got a point, but we have to find ways to win those close ones."
"We had a fair amount of chances, we just didn't convert," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "I thought our guys played hard. It wasn't a case of not establishing zone time or some opportunities at the net. I thought we had some quality chances. We just didn't convert."
NOTES:
-- With C Jake Guentzel out with a concussion after taking a hit from Buffalo Sabres D Rasmus Ristolainen on Tuesday, the Penguins called up RW Josh Archibald from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
-- Guentzel joined RW Bryan Rust (upper body), D Olli Maatta (hand), D Trevor Daley (knee), D Kris Letang (upper body), LW Carl Hagelin (lower body), D Ron Hainsey (upper body), C Evgeni Malkin (shoulder) and LW Tom Sestito (upper body) on the injured list.
-- Senators RW Mark Stone missed his seventh game with a lower-body injury. He took part in the morning skate and said he's hoping to play Saturday in the Senators' first-place showdown with the Canadiens in Montreal.
