from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun,

The Ottawa Senators will have to settle for the split.

What choice do they have?

The defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins put the Senators in their place by winning a 1-0 decision Monday night at PPG Paints Arena to tie the Eastern Conference final, 1-1, as the series shifts back to Canadian Tire Centre for Game 3 on Wednesday.

Pittsburgh’s Phil Kessel, who had been frustrated most of the night, broke the scoreless tie at 13:05 of the third period when he picked up his own rebound off a Jean-Gabriel Pageau blocked shot and beat Craig Anderson with the only goal the Penguins needed after completely dominating the Senators in the final 30 minutes.

This might have been the easiest shutout of Marc-Andre Fleury's NHL career. The Senators went a span of 18:53 between the second and third period without even recording a shot on the Penguins netminder. If the game plan was to hang on for dear life, the Senators nearly performed it to a tee until Kessel played hero.

Suddenly, the momentum has moved in the direction of the Penguins. And the Senators are going to have to find an answer quick, because this performance wasn’t pretty by any stretch of the imagination.

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Watch the game highlights below...