PITTSBURGH — Eight playoff wins down, eight to go for Sidney Crosby and the Penguins.
James Neal had a hat trick and Pittsburgh finished off the lifeless Senators 6-2 last night in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals to take the best-of-seven series 4-1.
“We got to our game a lot,” said Crosby, the Penguins’ captain. “The depth we showed, different guys chipping in. The whole way through we didn’t have many lulls where we lost momentum at any point.”
Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin and Brenden Morrow also scored, and Tomas Vokoun made 29 saves as top-seeded Pittsburgh easily advanced.
The Penguins will face the winner of the Rangers-Bruins series in the conference finals.
Milan Michalek and Kyle Turris scored for Ottawa. Craig Anderson stopped 27 shots, but the Senators simply couldn’t keep up as the Penguins ended Ottawa’s season for the third time in the last five years.
The Penguins expected desperation from a team trying to extend its season for at least another 48 hours. Instead, the Senators offered only resignation.
Outskated, outshot and outworked from the opening faceoff, Ottawa put up little resistance as Pittsburgh moved on to the conference finals for the first time since 2009, when the franchise won its third Stanley Cup.