Spezza’s hat trick sends Senators past Penguins

OTTAWA (AP) — Jason Spezza’s second career hat trick lifted the Ottawa Senators to a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.

A sold-out crowd of 19,561 at Scotiabank Place watched Spezza beat Penguins goaltender Dany Sabourin on three occasions in the second period as the Senators climbed back to .500 with their fourth victory in five games.

Dany Heatley added a pair of assists and Alex Auld made 17 saves for Ottawa. Spezza has six goals in his last five games.

NHL scoring leader Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal each had a goal and an assist for the Penguins, who were playing their third game in four days.

Malkin’s goal was a short-handed effort, while Staal’s came on the power play.

Sidney Crosby had an assist to extend his point-scoring streak to six games. He has six goals and nine assists in the span. Sabourin stopped 28 shots.

With Malkin and Crosby coming into the game ranked 1-2 in NHL scoring with 41 and 39 points, respectively, it seemed Ottawa’s big job would be to try and contain the double threat.

However, Senators coach Craig Hartsburg went power against power often, matching his top line of Spezza, Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson against Malkin, Crosby and Petr Sykora.

The first time the top lines went opposite one another, it resulted in a Pittsburgh 3-on-1 that failed to result in a shot after Malkin lost the handle after a pass from Crosby.