OTTAWA, Ontario -- Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Ottawa Senators 3-2 on Friday night to even the Eastern Conference finals at 2-2.
Crosby had one point as the defending champion Penguins dropped two of the first three, leading to questions about his health after a jarring concussion in the second round.
Matt Murray, inserted into the lineup by Coach Mike Sullivan, made 22 saves in his first start of the playoffs.
Marc-Andre Fleury was taken out after yielding four goals in the first period Wednesday night in the Penguins' 5-1 loss in Game 3.
Brian Dumoulin and Olli Maatta added goals to help Pittsburgh take a 3-0 lead midway through the second period.
Clarke MacArthur and Tom Pyatt scored for Ottawa.
Game 5 is Sunday in Pittsburgh.
Starting for the first time in more than six weeks, Murray made a strong stop on Mike Hoffman less than two minutes into the game and denied Viktor Stalberg on two follow-up opportunities. The goalie made maybe his best stop on Derick Brassard's backhander, kicking the shot away with his right pad.
Fleury started the first 15 games for Pittsburgh with Murray mostly sidelined by injury.
"It's always a big boost when your coach has the confidence in you to play a game like this, especially after so long," said Murray, who hadn't started a game since April 6. "I really appreciated the confidence that he put in me. I really tried to put my best game on the ice and pay him back for his decision. I tried to do my best to give the team a chance to win.
"It's not an easy thing to do, but all you can do is jump in and try not to think about it. Just go with the flow of the game and let yourself get lost in the game a little bit. I thought I did a pretty good job of that."
Pittsburgh opened the scoring with 46 seconds left in the first period when Maatta went down the left side and fired a short-side shot past on goalie Craig Anderson. Crosby set up the play.
Pittsburgh's already battered defense took another blow late in the first when Bobby Ryan hit Chad Ruhwedel. Ian Cole immediately throttled Ryan, as Ruhwedel was down on the ice. Ryan escaped a charging penalty on the play, and Cole drew the only call for roughing.
The Penguins are already without Kris Letang, who is done for the playoffs, and Justin Schultz, who missed the last two games with an upper-body injury.
Crosby's brilliance showed up again midway through the second on a power play after Jean-Gabriel Pageau ripped off the Pittsburgh star's helmet in a scrum around the net.
Crosby stationed himself right on the doorstep to Anderson's left, his right leg hugging the post for support. That didn't allow him to score on the initial setup from Jake Guentzel, but helped him to bang in the follow-up for the 2-0 lead. Guentzel had two assists.
Dumoulin made it 3-0 less than four minutes later with a shot from the left point that caromed in off Ottawa defenseman Dion Phaneuf's skate.
"As a whole each line generated some good chances," Crosby said. "We played the right way. We were physical. We were on our toes a bit more. Got the result we wanted."
Ottawa had mostly neutralized the high-powered Penguins in the first three games, holding them to three goals -- a mark they equaled in less than 32 minutes of Game 4. Pittsburgh seemed to find more speed, got more shots in tight and capitalized on opportunities around the net.
The Senators had little going right until the last two minutes of the second when Ryan found MacArthur with a backdoor pass for Ottawa's first goal.
The Senators pulled within one with five minutes left when Pyatt got a skate on Erik Karlsson's already-deflected point shot, but the Penguins were able to hold strong the rest of the way.
"I just tried to approach it like any other game," Murray said. "I had to come back from injury before this year. Basically try not to think about it. Just kind of jump in, just play. That was my focus.
"The team made it a pretty easy game for me. They did a really good job. They blocked a lot of shots, especially late. Really good overall team effort."
Information for this article contributed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Sports on 05/20/2017