Mike Hoffman scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period to give the Senators a 2-1 victory against the Penguins on Tuesday night in Ottawa, Ontario, and force a decisive Game 7 in the Eastern Conference finals.

Hoffman fired a slap shot through traffic off a pass from Fredrik Claesson to put the Senators ahead 1 minute, 34 seconds into the third.

Bobby Ryan also scored a rare power-play goal for the Senators and Craig Anderson stopped 45 shots, including 22 in the second period.

Evgeni Malkin gave the Penguins, vying for their second straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final, the lead early in the second period and Matt Murray finished with 28 saves.

Game 7 is Thursday night in Pittsburgh, with the winner advancing to face the Predators.

The Senators managed to quickly forget a 7-0 loss two days earlier in Game 5 and extend their season for one more shot at a return to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 10 years.

The Senators were primarily looking for a return to structure in Game 6, beginning with a smoother start — which they got. Notable in a scoreless opening period were two effective penalty kills. The Penguins had four shots with the man advantage, but Anderson stopped them all.

The Penguins appeared to have opened the scoring just over three minutes into the second, but Trevor Daley was deemed to have interfered with Anderson following a Senators challenge.

Less than two minutes later though, the Penguins took the 1-0 lead anyway off a few moments of brilliance from Malkin. The playoff scoring leader (24 points) bounced off a check from Zack Smith behind the goal and after being stopped on his drive to the net, followed up with a nifty backhand rebound to beat Anderson. It was his 153rd career playoff point in 142 games. AP