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Pascal Leclaire to start Game 5 for Senators

Pascal Leclaire, Alexandre Picard

Ottawa Senators’ Pascal Leclaire (33) and teammate Alexandre Picard (45) look away as the puck sits in the net after one of three first period goals from the Nashville Predators during an NHL hockey game in Ottawa on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Sean Kilpatrick)

AP

The Ottawa Senators will start should-be No. 1 goalie Pascal Leclaire over their actual No. 1 Brian Elliott tonight as the team tries to fight off elimination at Mellon Arena. It’s pretty difficult to look at this as anything but a band-aid solution for the wobbling Senators (and it’s not as if Leclaire was that great in relief of Elliott on Tuesday night, either). Still, it’s not like Elliott was setting the world on fire, so why not. Right? TSN has the story, as well as some facts that (surprise, surprise) don’t exactly lean in Ottawa’s favor.

Pittsburgh, which was 25-12-4 at Mellon Arena in the regular season, can punch its ticket to the next round with a home victory tonight.Since 1991, the Penguins are 10-4 when they have an opportunity to close out a series on home ice.

Pittsburgh, the two-time defending Eastern Conference champions, won a wild Game 4 matchup in Ottawa on Tuesday, downing the Senators by a 7-4 count. The Penguins scored five times during an eight-goal second period, which proved to be the second-highest scoring period all-time in NHL postseason history.

Sidney Crosby continued his torrid start to the 2010 playoffs with two goals and two assists in Tuesday’s win. Crosby now has 11 points (4 goals, 7 assists) in the series to lead the league in playoff scoring and became only the second player in NHL history to notch at least two points in each of his team’s first four games to a playoff series (Paul Coffey, 1989). It was Crosby’s first four-point playoff game since Game 2 versus Ottawa in the 2008 quarterfinals.

While the Philadelphia Flyers are banged up and the New Jersey Devils are throwing jars of jelly to exorcise their demons, the Senators have an even bigger mountain to climb being that they’d need to win 2 games on the road, 1 game in Ottawa and three in a row to come back in this series.

Still, there would be no better time for Leclaire to justify the hype he came into Ottawa with than to stand on his head and lead a miracle run for the Senators. These playoffs have been crazy enough for it to happen. You never know.