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Senators show fight in taking series lead

JEAN-GABRIEL PAGEAU got his first NHL hat trick yesterday to lead the Ottawa Senators in a fight-filled, 6-1 victory over the visiting Montreal Canadiens.

JEAN-GABRIEL PAGEAU got his first NHL hat trick yesterday to lead the Ottawa Senators in a fight-filled, 6-1 victory over the visiting Montreal Canadiens.

The teams combined for 232 penalty minutes and nine players were given a game misconduct.

The Senators have a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series and Game 4 is tomorrow.

The third period started with the Senators leading 2-1, but after Pageau's second goal of the night and a Kyle Turris goal at 7:00, emotions overflowed and a line brawl broke out at center ice.

Pageau, who was born in Ottawa, scored his second of the game at 1:18 of the third period to give the Senators a 3-1 lead.

Turris' goal, his first of the series, at 7:00 put the game out of reach.

On the ensuing faceoff, four different fights broke out.

The Senators ended up with the man advantage and Jakob Silfverberg scored on the power play as he beat Habs goalie Carey Price up high to make it 5-1 only 8 seconds after Turris' goal.

More penalties were taken and at one point Ottawa was left with just five players on the bench, while Montreal had six.

Pageau completed the hat trick, just the second player in Senators history to score a hat trick in the playoffs with less than two minutes left. Daniel Alfredsson also did it in 1998.

Alfredsson scored Ottawa's opening goal and Craig Anderson stopped 33 shots.

Price faced 30 shots. Rene Bourque scored for the Canadiens at 14:34 of the first.

Captain Brian Gionta and Max Pacioretty, who both missed Game 2, were back in the lineup for the Canadiens.

Pageau, with his first career playoff goal, gave the Senators a 2-1 lead early in the second as he slipped between defensemen P.K. Subban and Andrei Markov to beat Price over the shoulder.

Pageau is not likely to forget the goal as he was hit in the mouth by Subban on the goal and lost a tooth. Players could be seen looking for the tooth on the ensuing goal celebration.

The Canadiens had a couple of great chances to tie the game in the second, but came up short.

In other games: * 

At Uniondale, Chris Kunitz scored his second power-play goal of the game 8:34 into overtime, off a pass from Sidney Crosby, and the Pittsburgh Penguins shook off an early deficit and a late blown lead to beat the New York Islanders, 5-4, in Game 3 of the first-round series. The Penguins lead the series, 2-1. Game 4 is tomorrow on Long Island.

* At St. Paul, Jason Zucker scored at 2:15 of overtime to give Minnesota a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks, pulling the Wild within 2-1 in the West quarterfinal series. Game 4 is in Minnesota tomorrow.

Noteworthy * 

Detroit's Justin Abdelkader was suspended two games for Saturday's hit on Anaheim's Toni Lydman. Abdelkader will miss Games 4 and 5. Anaheim leads the series 2-1. Game 4 is tonight.