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Ruutu tallies in shootout, Penguins edge Senators

Mar 19, 2007 - 4:12 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- When the Pittsburgh Penguins looked for an edge against the Ottawa Senators, they turned to Jarkko Ruutu.

Ruutu scored the lone tally in the shootout and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury made it stand up as the Penguins posted a 4-3 victory over the Senators.

Sidney Crosby and defenseman Ryan Whitney each had a goal and an assist and Maxime Talbot tallied for Pittsburgh (41-21-10), which tied Ottawa (42-23-8) for fourth place in the Eastern Conference with 92 points apiece.

"As it stands right now, it's looking like we'll play them in first round so these kind of wins set the tone," Whitney said.

In the second round of the shootout, Ruutu cruised in and stuffed a backhanded shot past the pad of goaltender Ray Emery.

"His goal was weird, man," Emery said. "He came down really slow. A guy like that who doesn't get many minutes coming down in the shootout, you know he's got something coming up. It was a funny move. I didn't know what to expect."

Fleury stopped all three shots he faced, including a foot save against Antoine Vermette to seal the victory.

"I had a few moves and I just decided to go slow and see where it's going to be open and the five-hole happened to be open, so I took it," Ruutu said.

"When Fleury doesn't give up goals in the shootout, we have a pretty good chance to win," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "It was also a nice goal by Ruutu tonight."

Crosby, who had just two assists in his five previous encounters against Ottawa, scored with a man-advantage at 4:03 of the second period to give Pittsburgh a short-lived 2-1 lead.

"The win was big," Crosby said. "I knew we were going to face a tough team. I don't think we had the best first period but we came on in the second two and played a little bit better."

After Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson tied the contest 61 seconds later, Crosby added his league-leading 108th point by setting up Whitney's goal with 2:55 left in the session.

"Sid made a nice one-time pass and luckily I kind of put it in off Emery," Whitney said. "We were fortunate to get that one and another power play goal, too."

However, defenseman Wade Redden tallied with 4:53 left in regulation for the Senators to forge a 3-3 tie.

"I thought we played well," Senators coach Bryan Murray said. "If we play this team later on in the playoffs, I'll be very comfortable that we can compete at a good level." Fluery stopped 30 shots for Pittsburgh, which has won five in a row and is 8-1-1 in its last 10 games.

Emery made 16 saves for Ottawa, which lost for only the second time in nine games here.