Penguins score first, but Atlanta wins big

OTTAWA (AP) — Chris Phillips waited a long time to reveal his offensive skills.

Phillips scored twice in his 800th regular-season game, and Pascal Leclaire made 25 saves, leading the Ottawa Senators to a 6-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night.

Phillips, who entered with one goal in 18 games, scored goals 2:03 apart in the third to put Ottawa up 5-1 and chase Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

“I’m not expected to, for sure,” Phillips said. “It feels good to do it and it felt like one of those high energy games, for us anyways, and it’s nice.”

Milan Michalek got his 100th career goal and Matt Carkner, Chris Kelly and Jonathan Cheechoo also scored for Ottawa, which won its second in a row. Mike Fisher had three assists for the Senators.

“Philly had to wait until his 800th to get two in a row but that was pretty sweet,” Carkner said. “He played really well tonight for us, a solid game and just that he got those two goals was huge for us. We’re very proud of him.”

Jordan Staal scored early in the first, and Evgeni Malking had a power-play goal late in the third for Pittsburgh, which gave up six straight goals after taking a 1-0 lead 1:09 in.

Fleury, who made 19 saves, left 7:12 into the third after allowing five goals. Brent Johnson stopped six of seven shots the rest of the way.

Maxime Talbot made his season debut for Pittsburgh and Sergei Gonchar returned to the Penguins’ injury-depleted defense corps.

Talbot, who had surgery on his left shoulder in July, played for the first time since scoring both goals in Pittsburgh’s 2-1 win over Detroit last spring in the seventh game of the Stanley Cup final.

“It definitely feels good to be back,” said Talbot, who was called for tripping on his first shift and played a total of 13:17. “Obviously you want to come back in a winning situation but personally I think I was lucky enough to have a couple of good shifts and I had ice time so it’s good to be back out there.”

Gonchar, who missed 12 games after he broke his left wrist on Oct. 20, played 25:30, the most ice time of any player on either team.

“I think good additions back in our lineup,” coach Dan Bylsma said. “It was our first game for Max in a long, long time and he brought his energy and he was effective.”