OTT@NJD: Pageau fuels Senators' win with hat trick

NEWARK, N.J. -- Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored the first regular-season hat trick of his NHL career, and the Ottawa Senators rallied for a 4-2 win against the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center on Wednesday.

Mark Borowiecki scored, and Craig Anderson made 21 saves for the Senators (7-10-1), who are 3-1-0 in their past four games. Anderson won for the first time in three starts.
"That Pageau line (with Nicholas Paul and Connor Brown) was flying tonight," Anderson said. "They gave us offensive support, and they're solid with the puck in our defensive zone, which created those offensive chances."
WATCH: [All Senators vs. Devils highlights]
Pageau scored his second of the game with 2:01 left in the third period on a rebound from the right face-off circle to give the Senators a 3-2 lead. He scored his third goal into an empty net with 26 seconds remaining, giving him eight goals in his past six games and nine points (eight goals, one assist) in his past seven.
"I thought we were really patient," Pageau said. "I don't think we started the way we wanted, but as the game went on, I think the momentum started changing when we kept putting pucks behind their defense and kept working. I think we wore them out in the end and were the better team by the end, and that's why we won."

OTT@NJD: Borowiecki nets goal from top of circle

Wayne Simmonds and Will Butcher scored, and Mackenzie Blackwood made 21 saves for the Devils (5-8-4), who led 2-1 from late in the first period until midway through the third.
"[This is] inconsistency in our complete game as a group," Blackwood said. "It's not one person, it's everyone. We do a lot of great things, we have a lot of great players do a lot of great things, but we just made a couple of mistakes and they came back to bite us. Every team in this league is good, and on every given night you are hard challenged. We just have to come back and be better."
The Senators were coming off an 8-2 loss at the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday.
"We want to be known as a team that's going to play hard every night, and if we stay patient enough and stay in the game we're going to get our opportunities to score," Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. "We don't score a lot of goals, but we've got to hold you to nothing. I didn't like our first period, thought we gave up too much, but after that I thought we locked it down pretty good."
Borowiecki scored on a snap shot from the top of the left face-off circle past a screened Blackwood at 13:30 of the third for a 2-2 tie.
"I thought we did a pretty good job of managing the puck," Devils captain Andy Greene said. "It was just two plays in the third, and those are things we should've learned by now."
Butcher gave the Devils a 2-1 lead when he scored on a wrist shot from the left circle that went in off Anderson's right shoulder with 2:08 left in the first.
Pageau scored on a snap shot at the right post to tie it 1-1 at 14:54.
Simmonds gave the Devils a 1-0 lead when he skated onto a pass from Miles Wood near center ice and scored on a breakaway at 4:19. It was his second goal in two games.

Enterprise Hat Trick- Pageau

They said it

"Pageau is the hardest-working guy in practice. He's a water bug out there and makes sure he plays the right way, and he gets rewarded for it. He's got so much skill, has a great shot and some great hands, and he's always in the right spot at the right time. I think that's his hockey sense, he's a great asset for the guys in this room." -- Senators goalie Craig Anderson
"[Blackwood] was excellent, no doubt about it. He made big saves and kept us in the game, particularly in the third period. We have to be way better. When you go back and look at the end of the first period and the third period, it's not what it needs to be. We got what we deserved tonight." -- Devils coach John Hynes

Need to know

The Senators, 2-6-1 on the road this season, went 0-for-1 on the power play on Wednesday and are 0-for-14 with the man-advantage in their past five games. ... Pageau has scored a hat trick twice in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He had four goals against the New York Rangers in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Second Round on April 29, 2017, and three goals against the Montreal Canadiens in Game 3 of the first round May 5, 2013. ... Pageau was plus-4 and leads the NHL with a plus-19 rating in 18 games. … Butcher scored his first goal in nine games and led the Devils in ice time (24:55).

What's next

Senators:Host the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; RDS2, TSN5, NBCSP+, NHL.TV)
Devils: Host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SN, MSG+, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV)

Pageau's hat trick powers Senators past Devils, 4-2