Senators recover, top Penguins in OT on Tkachuk goal

OTTAWA -- Brady Tkachuk scored 1:46 into overtime for the Ottawa Senators in a 3-2 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday.

“We’re playing to our identity,” Tkachuk said. “We’re playing for each other and if we keep doing it, the results are going to keep coming.”

Tkachuk toe-dragged Erik Karlsson in the slot and beat Tristan Jarry with a wrist shot along the ice.

“Just a 60-minute effort,” Tkachuk said. “Not every game is going to be perfect, but it’s that ability to bounce back and persevere. I think that’s what we learned in that stretch in late October, November. That, all that adversity, it happens for a reason. We’re able to battle back, persevere and to not fold under pressure.”

Thomas Chabot had a goal and an assist, and Drake Batherson scored for the Senators (15-13-2), who have won three games in a row for the first time this season.

“Another good all around effort, staying with the game,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “You know, we get the lead, and they come back and tie it. Resiliency is a word I would use.”

Linus Ullmark made 25 saves after shutting out the Carolina Hurricanes 3-0 on Friday. Anton Forsberg was scheduled to start but sustained a “minor injury” during warmups, the team said. Ullmark is 6-0-1 in his past seven starts.

“You just go with it,” Ullmark said of his mindset when he found out he was starting.” There’s nothing really [you can do]; you just take what it is.”

Blake Lizotte and Kris Letang scored, and Jarry made 28 saves for the Penguins (13-14-5), who had won six of eight.

“I thought Ottawa defended their net front really hard all night,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “It took us a while to get to them. I thought in the second half of the second period, I thought we got to them a little bit more, but they defended hard.”

Chabot gave the Senators a 1-0 lead at 7:34 of the first period. Claude Giroux gathered a rebound in front, outwaited Jarry, skated around the net and fed Chabot, who scored with a one-timer from the slot.

Karlsson had an open net on a Michael Bunting rebound on a rush, but Ullmark stretched out for a desperation paddle save to keep it 1-0 at 9:58.

Lizotte scored on a Noel Acciari rebound in front to tie it 1-1 at 2:40 of the third period.

“They played straight ahead; they played a north-south game,” Sullivan said. “They put pucks below the goal line, they got in on the forecheck. The goals they get, you know, they’re not pretty, but they count. And it’s one way to score goals in this league.”

Ottawa regained the lead 2-1 at 6:38 when Chabot banked the puck in off Batherson’s skate at the side of the net.

“That one to Drake was a pass,” Chabot said. “Actually, tip my hat to [Tim Stutzle] on that one. Between periods we were talking about it. Don’t know if you guys remember, but in the second we kind of had that one shift where there was a lot of cycling and a lot of traffic in front of the net and [Stutzle] kind of came up to me in the room. He’s like, ‘Maybe one of us should just sling one back post. Never know, [could] hit someone.’ I saw Drake kind of making a wall in the back post, so I tried to just hit him somewhere and it worked out.”

Letang beat a screened Ullmark with a wrist shot from the point to tie it 2-2 at 12:42. The defenseman has scored in two straight and four of his past six games.

“It was more of a wait-and-see kind of game,” Letang said. “They played last night. Obviously, they still had their rhythm, and they came out really hard. But we knew, as the game goes on, they get a little bit of fatigue and we kind of took over. But it was a game that could’ve gone either way.”

NOTES: Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson left the game with a lower-body injury midway through the first period after taking a hit and crashing into the boards awkwardly. Sullivan did not have an update on Pettersson postgame. … It was Tkachuk’s ninth career overtime goal, the most in Senators history. … Ullmark passed Mike Condon and Dominik Hasek for the second-longest point streak by a goaltender in his first season with the Senators. … Ottawa did not take a penalty.