This one looked over.

The Ottawa Senators were staring a three-game deficit right in the face, down a goal with 90 seconds to go. Then, to make matters worse, Erik Karlsson took a slashing penalty, putting them down a man as well. But the Senators refused to go away, and a minute into the penalty, Daniel Alfredsson sneaked into the Pittsburgh zone, unmarked, and Milan Michalek found him in front of the net. Alfy sealed the deal, as Alfies often do, ending Tomas Vokoun's shutout bid and sending the game into overtimes.

Yes, overtimes. For the first time in the 2013 postseason, it took double OT for this game to produce a winner, and when it did, the Senators were back in the series. At 7:39 of the second overtime, Colin Greening banged home a loose puck to give the Sens a 2-1 victory:

And with that, the legend of the pesky Sens lives on. This team just won't go away. Pittsburgh will be left to wonder if it was their brutally lackadaisical approach to the powerplay late in regulation that cost them the lead, or destiny.

(Probably the former. But the latter makes for a nice narrative, no?)

Even after tying the game up in miraculous fashion, the Senators were nearly dealt the fatal blow numerous times. Pascal Dupuis hit a post in the first overtime. Evgeni Malkin had several terrifying forays into the Senators' end. They even survived another Pittsburgh powerplay in OT number two.

Alfredsson and Greening will get much of the credit for stealing Game 3 -- which is sort of what happens when you get your name on the scoresheet after the 59th minute -- but Craig Anderson was a deserving first star after keeping the game within stealing distance all night. The Senators' netminder stopped 49 of 50 shots in the win.

How close were the Senators to the end? After the game, Greening -- who took a high-stick in the second and was late to the postgame scrum because doctors had to extract the fiberglass that had been sitting in his face for two and a half periods -- looked like he'd just come from Dexter's kill table.

You can't get much closer to death than that. Not many people survive the blood slide moment.

Game 4 goes Wednesday in Ottawa.

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Patrice Bergeron streaked into the Rangers' zone, going wide on his man and down the wall. As he neared the goal line, he threw the puck towards the crease, where Dan Girardi was unable to get a stick on it and, much to his chagrin, Brad Marchand was. The smallish winger with the nose for the net redirected it past Henrik Lundqvist for the score.

That's not the Game 1 overtime winner I'm describing, though the similarities are striking. It was the fourth goal in Boston's decisive, 5-2, Game 2 victory over the New York Rangers.

The retread of the Marchand-Bergeron connection aside, these games weren't all that similar. Game 1 was close -- so close it needed extra time; Game 2 was over well before the end of regulation.

Johnny Boychuk scored the eventual game-winner at 12:08 of the second period after Brad Marchand handed him the puck at the top of the zone and the Rangers handed him all the time in the world. He beat Henrik Lundqvist with a laser.

The Rangers' comeback hopes took a major hit just 26 seconds into the final frame, as Marchand and Bergeron hooked up for the goal described above (and showcased below):

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The New York Rangers enter Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Sunday with, statistically, the worst power play of the playoffs’ surviving teams: 2 goals on 31 shorthanded chances, for a 6.4-percent conversion rate.

The deficiency has gone from being a drag on the Rangers’ offense to being a boost to the opposition, like during their empty power plays in their Game 1 loss at the Boston Bruins.

So what’s gone wrong for the Rangers, and can it turn around?

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Via Penguins WhoSay

Besides being able to have their team advance out of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the city of Pittsburgh has also made it possible to turn one of its buildings into a goal light.

A Toronto Maple Leafs fan petition to turn CN Tower into a goal light for each playoff game didn't succeed. In Pittsburgh, however, it took a round, but the top of Gulf Tower will light up red every time the Penguins score in for the rest of the playoffs.

Ian Walsh, an executive with Rugby Realty, who control Gulf Tower, met with the Penguins on Wednesday to discuss another idea when the goal light conversation came up. After figuring out a way to control the lights remotely, the plan was put into place for Game 2 on Friday.

Here's a view from inside CONSOL Energy Center after Brenden Morrow's goal in Game 2:

From the Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review:

There was no test run, and Crosby's goal early in the first period on Friday night turned the Gulf Tower into a rotating red light for the first time. However, because there was still daylight when Crosby scored around 7:50 p.m., few people noticed.

That was not the case about 30 minutes later when Crosby scored his second goal. A darker sky provided the perfect backdrop for the Gulf Tower to stand out.

During the game, Wareham received word from Penguins employees that fans were posting photos of the rooftop goal-light on Twitter, but even he was surprised how quickly the idea became a success.

The Penguins’ director of event presentation controls the lights via an iPhone and beginning with Sunday night’s Game 3, there will be 20 rotations of the lights for each goal scored, up from 15 used during Game 2.

Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy

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