Senators winger Colin Greening had a bit of stick embedded in his face when he scored the Game 3 winner. (Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

An annotated guide to this morning’s must-read hockey stories:

• One look at Colin Greening’s face proves how far a player will go to win in the playoffs.

• Daniel Alfredsson’s game-tying goal in the last minute turned what looked like a Pittsburgh sweep into a series that could go the distance.

• The Penguins always seem to do things the hard way, writes Dejan Kovacevic.

• Forget what opposing fans say. This player has proven himself to be one of the toughest in hockey with his performance in these playoffs.

• With a win, and Jason Spezza back in the lineup, there is hope in Ottawa.

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Colin Greening scored the winning goal in double overtime for the Senators (Jana Chytilova/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

The Ottawa Senators have it all wrong.

They call themselves “The Pesky Sens,” swiping a catchphrase from the Dallas Stars and using it as a hashtag on Twitter. It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t so misleading.

The Senators aren’t pesky. They’re resolute, resilient. They proved it again tonight, just when everyone was ready to write them off, piecing together their biggest win of the postseason by beating Pittsburgh 2-1 in double overtime in Game 3 to cut the Pens’ series lead to 2-1.

We’ve all made that mistake before. This is the same team that seemed destined for the draft lottery after losing Jason Spezza, then Craig Anderson, then Erik Karlsson in rapid succession. But the Senators proved everyone wrong, not just earning a playoff berth, but knocking off the second-seed Montreal Canadiens with ease.

So maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised to see them send what looked like a sure loss into overtime with a shorthanded beauty in the final minute off the stick of captain Daniel Alfredsson.

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